Austin Butler finds his pitch in ‘Caught Stealing’

Austin Butler in “Caught Stealing.” (Photo by Niko Tavernise) Credit: Niko Tavernise “Caught Stealing” is a funny name for Darren Aronofsky’s new film. Not just because of how much baseball factors into the plot, but because in reality, every character kind of gets away with everything. Unless they end up dead.  “Caught Stealing” doesn’t really feel like an Aronofsky movie, but rather like Aronofsky by way of Guy Ritchie. Written by Charlie Huston and based on his book, “Caught Stealing” is about Hank Thompson (Austin Butler), a former high school baseball player whose professional potential was ruined by a drunk driving accident. Now, he bartends on the Lower East Side, drinks too much, and lives vicariously through his beloved San Francisco Giants. No one loves the Giants (or hates the Mets) more than Hank. During a sex scene, he takes off his Giants cap in order to take his shirt off, then immediately puts the hat back on. A true fan.  After being asked by his punk rock neighbor Russ (Matt Smith) to watch his cat while he goes to see his dying father in England, Hank is attacked by two Russian gangsters interested in Russ’ whereabouts, and quickly becomes embroiled in a web of crime with no earthly idea what’s going on. It’s a wacky premise, and one that is mostly well-served by Huston’s script and Aronofsky’s direction. Except when it gets a little too … well, Aronofsky, suddenly becoming a little too nasty for the tone it’s trying to strike.  But, despite a middle section that sags under the weight of that darkness, for the most part “Caught Stealing” gets away with it – it’s hard not to get lost in a bit of nostalgia for this era of grimy New York City crime caper, and, for as much as “Caught Stealing” feels out of step with most of Aronofsky’s work, Butler shines in a film that seems to have figured out exactly what type of movie star he should be.  We set our scene in 1998, a grungy and sweaty New York City in the midst of widespread “gentrified chi chi bullsh*t,” as Detective Roman (Regina King) puts it. Neon, smoke and fluorescent flickering lights fill the night as yuppies continue their slow creep inward – in one of the film’s better running gags, Russ and Hank’s neighbor Duane (George Abud) insists that he does not work on Wall Street, but builds websites (in 2025, he’s probably the richest of us all). “Caught Stealing” is attempting to recreate an NYC that has been lost to time, not just in the setting – Hank literally lives around the corner from Kim’s Video – but in the side characters too. Griffin Dunne plays Paul, Hank’s stringy-haired coked-up boss. Carol Kane shows up as the good-natured mother of two gun-slinging Orthodox Jewish gangsters (Vincent D’Onofrio and Liev Schreiber). These characters, and more specifically, these castings, do a ton of legwork to give this version of New York City some credibility.  The strongest thing to recommend “Caught Stealing” is Butler himself, and how, with Aronofsky’s help, he might have finally figured out how to weaponize his star persona to its fullest potential. Barring “Dune: Part Two,” where he plays a sexy, murderous alien (and even then, he still has a moral code of sorts), Butler’s superpower lies in his integrity. Despite looking like he does – AKA, someone far too handsome to be trustworthy – there is something innately likable about him. It’s not sensitivity – that word always associated with tragic, tormented men – but rather something more like sweetness.  “Caught Stealing” depends on that quality. It’s important that, despite his dark past, despite his drinking and his wallowing, we like Hank and want to go along with him for the ride.  “Caught Stealing” comes into its own in the last act, which includes a great sequence around Shea Stadium (between this and “Highest 2 Lowest,” this has been a really great year for New York baseball teams in the movies) and the aforementioned Jewish gangsters. D’Onofrio and Schreiber are some of the best at capturing the balance of tone that “Caught Stealing” needs to succeed. They can be threatening when the mood calls for it, but equally as believable jovially slurping down matzo ball soup in their mother’s kitchen, forcing Hank to accompany them to a Shabbos dinner before heading off to commit murder.  “Caught Stealing” works best in these moments, pushing its protagonist along in a movie he doesn’t quite understand or even want to be in. But when the violence becomes too palpable for the silliness we’re working with here – again, this is a guy that ends every phone call with his mother, even the bad ones, with the phrase “Go Giants” – the film’s spark dulls. While the film’s split tone seems to move with D’Onofrio and Schreiber, the other gangster characters are not so lucky, stuck somewhere between funny and scary, and never really pulling off either.  As Hank’s love interest, Yvonne, Zoë Kravitz gets the short end of the stick. She and Butler have a playful, steamy chemistry that’s gradually pushed to the side as Yvonne becomes less of a character in her own right and more something to push Hank along in his journey. What happens to Yvonne is emblematic of the movie’s greater tonal issues. While Butler is quite good at carrying the emotional weight of what happens, “Caught Stealing” is far too silly to pull off that type of cruelty without it feeling forced.  The post Austin Butler finds his pitch in ‘Caught Stealing’ appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta.