By Aydan Cantu
From its marketing and cast interviews, Caught Stealing was talked to be a film in tone with Martin Scorsese’s After Hours (which also stars Griffin Dunne, no doubt an homage), yet while Scorsese’s masterpiece is an absurd comedy, Aronofsky’s film is a tone-deaf picture that comes off more insensitive than funny. Caught Stealing is the latest film from Daron Aronofsky, director of acclaimed films such as Requiem for a Dream, The Wrestler, Black Swan, and most-recently The Whale.
The film stars Austin Butler as a former high-school baseball turned NYC bartender who gets entangled in a dangerous criminal plot after agreeing to watch his neighbor’s cat. Aside from Butler, the cast is impressive with the likes of Regina King, Zoe Kravitz, Matt Smith, Liev Schreiber, Vincent D’onofrio, Bad Bunny, Griffin Dunne, Carol Kane, and a brief appearance from Laura Dern (spoiler alert).
The entire time I was watching Caught Stealing, I couldn’t help but think to myself, ‘how is this a comedy?’ What I got from this movie was Hank (Butler) couldn’t catch a break, and his already bad situation just keeps getting worse. With that said, I think that’s a major reason why I didn’t enjoy the movie, because it was an entirely different film than the trailers presented.
If there are some positives Caught Stealing has, it keeps the viewer entertained. Aside from the insensitive story-telling, where a person gets killed like it’s another Saturday night, I cannot deny I was entertained. Heck, I think I laughed a couple of times. Plus, you never know what comes next: one minute you’re watching Butler and some character laughs, then the next minute a massive shoot-out occurs.
Watching the stacked cast was insanely fun, especially when a ton of the actors shared a scene. Of all the performances I really enjoyed Butler’s the most. That’s probably because he’s the lead and makes you feel bad for his character. Aside from Butler, I immensely appreciated the performances from Schreiber, D’onofrio, and especially Bad Bunny, whose latest performance in Happy Gilmore 2 was also very amusing to view. Had Caught Stealing not been marketed as an absurd comedy and instead a comedic drama, I would have come out with a different opinion. And like I said, there’s much to be admired about its filmmaking, but by the time the movie ended, I lost count of how many times I asked myself ‘how is any of this funny?’ Though I’ve only seen Black Swan and The Whale, Caught Stealing is a miss from Aronofsky leaving me with a final rating of three out of five stars.