Can you make a movie with the intention of becoming a cult classic? And to that, I ask, can a film with a $40 million production budget, a heavy, studio-backed marketing push and a clear appeal to a wide commercial audience ever really earn that title?
This is the central problem of director Darren Aronofsky’s latest film.
“Caught Stealing” follows a San Francisco Giants-obsessed bartender named Hank, played by Austin Butler, who gets mixed up with New York gangsters after his British punk neighbor, played by Matt Smith, leaves him with a cat to care for.
The film tells a nihilistic story about guilt and broken systems while offering a funny and authentic representation of 1990s New York.
This depiction of the Lower East Side includes everything you would expect to see: run-down dive bars, a bartender sandwiched between one yuppie, website-designing neighbor and another who deals drugs, Meredith Brooks’ song “Bitch”and, of course, the corrupt NYPD of the ’90s battling gangs from a variety of cultural backgrounds.
The story is adapted from Charlie Huston’s novel, the first in a trilogy, and was initially slated for adaptation back in 2012 with Patrick Wilson and Alec Baldwin attached. After years in development, Sony revived the project in 2024 with Huston adapting his own work, Aronofsky directing and Butler starring.
With aims of being gritty, punk and philosophical, this film ends up in a constant tonal tug-of-war. Aronofsky, known for his low-budget but high-concept hits like “Pi” and “Black Swan,” seems to have lost his footing on a larger budget.
One moment, the film is delivering nihilistic Jewish proverbs like, “Troubles are to man what rust is to iron,” and the next, a cat sidekick that could have been in “Guardians of the Galaxy” is winking at the camera during a sex scene.
Even the end credits cannot escape this split personality, with creative visuals interrupted by meaningless post-credit scenes. It is hard to be punk when Marvel comparisons come so easily.
If “Caught Stealing” got one thing right, it’s New York City. Aronofsky follows in the long line of directors trying to replicate “After Hours” — however, this film actually makes a respectable effort to pay homage, with Griffin Dunne playing the owner of the bar Austin Butler’s character works at.
We see the same impossible-to-survive New York City that “After Hours” depicts, but we aren’t in Soho anymore. Austin Butler’s Hank is no corporate yuppie, and unlike Dunne’s character, he does actually get laid.
The cast delivers mixed but memorable performances. Zoë Kravitz excels in her typecast role as the “coolest girl in the room,” serving as both love interest and scene stealer.
Regina King leans into the commercial clichés with her cheesy performance as a corrupt NYPD narcotics detective. She didn’t even fully convince me that she enjoys black and white cookies, which should be an easy sell since it’s basically a universal truth that those are delicious. Unfortunately, this film relies too long on the assumption that audiences will be surprised that an NYPD cop in the 1990s on the Lower East Side could be corrupt.
Austin Butler absolutely embodies the grit of the East Village role, and no one is happier than I am that he escaped his Elvis accent. This really feels like an Austin Butler film, and hopefully the start of a new era for him.
Butler’s Hank gets in trouble with Russian gangsters played by Yuri Kolokolnikov and Nikita Kukushkin, a Puerto Rican gangster played by Benito Martínez Ocasio, also known as Bad Bunny, and eventually Hasidic gangsters played by Liev Schreiber and Vincent D’Onofrio.
All deliver strong performances, except Kukushkin’s Microbe, who was given the horrific task of playing the kids’ movie archetype of an overly animated and brain-dead henchman who comes across as almost, and problematically, animal-like.
I was pleasantly surprised by the mix of different languages included, with Bad Bunny often resorting to Spanish and Carol Kane speaking exclusively Yiddish, and the subtitles worked surprisingly well.
This very cynical and violent film has some successful humor. The Hasidic brothers, who repeatedly say “sad world” and “broken world” while committing heinous crimes, embody the film’s bleak worldview and dark humor by also refusing to drive on Shabbos to avoid upsetting God further.
Featuring a cameo by Aronofsky’s real-life neighbor, Miss Kitty, the film feels authentically rooted in the city’s grime and chaos. With the British punk band IDLES collaborating with Rob Simonsen on the score, the film successfully embodies true 1990s punk energy.
Ultimately, “Caught Stealing” is violent, cynical, funny and authentically New York, but constantly undermined by its need to play it commercial. Aronofsky is too talented to waste time on gimmicky blockbusters. The film is at its best when it leans into grit and pure punk chaos.
