By: Lana K. Wilson-Combs
"CAUGHT STEALING" CATCHES YOU OFF GUARD
Although
"Caught Stealing" from director/producer
Darren Aronofsky ("The Whale") and screenwriter
Charlie Huston (TV's "Gotham") is a gritty crime drama that features star turns from
Austin Butler ("Dune: Part Two") and
Zoe Kravitz ("Blink Twice," and TV's "The Studio"), it doesn't quite click on all cylinders.
Based on Huston's 2004 novel of the same name, the film is set in the seedy underbelly of 1998 New York. Henry "Hank" Thompson (Butler) is a washed-up former baseball prodigy now tending bar on the Lower East Side, struggling to outrun the ghost of his past. His girlfriend Yvonne (Kravitz), a driven paramedic with a kind heart, is his anchor and the only thing keeping him from completely unraveling. But no amount of late-night calls to Hank's mother in Patterson, California or reminiscing about their beloved baseball team the San Francisco Giants, can change the fact that one drunken high school mistake destroyed his future. A tragic car accident that killed his best friend Dale (D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, TV's "Reservation Dogs") and shattered his knee still haunts him more than any bottle ever could.
Yvonne doesn't deserve the chaos Hank drags her into, but it arrives anyway. It all starts with a cat. When Hank's strange, mohawked neighbor Russ (Matt Smith, TV's "House of the Dragon") asks him to cat-sit Bud while he jets off to London for a supposed family emergency, Hank reluctantly agrees. He's a dog guy, after all. Within hours, that tiny decision spirals into a nightmare. A pair of sleazy Russian mobsters break into Russ's apartment looking for something and they think Hank knows where it is. After a brutal beatdown leaves Hank hospitalized and minus a kidney, it's clear he is in way over his head.
Enter Detective Roman, played with icy precision by the always-commanding Regina King ("Shirley"), who peels back the layers of Russ's identity. Turns out he is a low-level drug dealer tied to two Jewish brothers who are crime lords: Lipa (Liev Schreiber, TV’s "The Perfect Couple") and Shmully Drucker (from "Godfather of Harlem"). They think that Russ left behind a key with Hank that will unlock millions in stolen cash. The pressure tightens when a ruthless enforcer named Colorado (Bad Bunny, a.k.a. Benito Martínez Ocasio) is sent to retrieve the prize by any means necessary.
"Caught Stealing" has all the right ingredients for a fast-paced, noir-infused thrill ride: crooked cops, brutal mobsters, unlikely heroes, and a cityscape that oozes grime and danger.
But despite its violent twists and moments of dark humor, the film often feels overplotted and underdeveloped.
There's tension, but not enough payoff.
Even so, Austin Butler is fun to watch as a broken man trying to claw his way back to something resembling a future.
Zoe Kravitz--although underutilized--gives Yvonne both fire and heart. And Regina King adds gravitas to a role that could have been one-note.
"Caught Stealing" zigs and zags but winds up running in circles. In the end, like its protagonist, the film never quite escapes the mess it stumbles into.
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Watch This Trailer For
"CAUGHT STEALING"
Lana K. Wilson-Combs is a member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA), The American Film Institute (AFI), and a Nominating Committee Voting Member for the NAACP Image Awards.
