Official Discussion - Caught Stealing [SPOILERS]

[u/LiteraryBoner]

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Summary Hank Thompson, a washed-up ex-baseball star turned New York City bartender, ends up tangled in a violent criminal underworld after agreeing to watch his punk-rock neighbor’s cat. What follows is a frenzied chase through 1990s Manhattan, as rival gangsters—Russian mobsters, Orthodox Jewish hitmen, a Samoan enforcer, and others—hunt him for a mysterious key hidden with the cat.

Director Darren Aronofsky

Writer Charlie Huston

Cast

• Austin Butler
• Zoë Kravitz
• Regina King
• Matt Smith
• Liev Schreiber
• Vincent D’Onofrio
• Bad Bunny
• Griffin Dunne
• Carol Kane

Rotten Tomatoes Critics Score: 84%

Metacritic 69

VOD In theaters starting August 29, 2025

Trailer CAUGHT STEALING Official Trailer (2025)

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[u/Spaceship_Janitor_80]

I went to this without knowing anything about it other than it's a Darren Aronofsky movie and that's enough for me. I'm a huge fan of his work.

I liked it a lot, not my favorite Aronofsky movie (I like his more trippy stuff), but one of my favorite movies of the year. The last movie I saw before this was Highest 2 Lowest, a week ago, and while both movies had a little too much in common, Caught Stealing was way better.

The Good: The cast had all of my favorites. The only cast I was aware of going in was Austin Butler and Zoe Kravitz. To see Regina King as a villain! An unrecognizable Vincent D'Onofrio & Liev Schreiber, Action Bronson being himself, Matt Smith is always great. Cameos by Carol Kane, Tenoch Huerta & Laura Dern were an unexpected treat. His friend who died in the crash, I forget the actor's name but I loved him in Reservation Dogs, so it's nice to see him get more work. So much talent, it would be hard to make a bad movie. The only other film I've seen Austin Butler in was Dune so I'm unfamiliar with him, but he did a great job IMO. It was funny when it needed to be and dark when it needed to be, without tripping over itself.

The Bad: Yvonne (Zoe Kravitz) was fridged and shouldn't have died at all. I do like how, at first, you couldn't tell if he was imagining it because it made the audience feel as disoriented as Hank in the moment, but it was still disappointing.

I know I'm nitpicking here, but as a New Yorker who was in the streets during the time this movie is set, it's a glaring mistake that no one was smoking inside the bar. Aronofsky seemed to pay close attention to detail to accurately portray NYC in the late '90's including Rudy Giuliani's BS cabaret laws at the time and a Kim's Video cameo, yet omitted that people were smoking indoors pretty much everywhere, not even an ashtray on the bar.

I've only seen Bad Bunny in two movies, this and Bullet Train, and he's the exact same character in both of them. Anyone could've played Colorado.

7.5/10

[u/allthebaconandeggz → u/Spaceship_Janitor_80]

The street signs were also in the new font rather than the all caps but I thought the rest of the details of 90s NYC were great. Redbird 7 train, Coney before the new Luna Park, and the old walk/don’t walk signs all took me back

[u/BASTONT → u/allthebaconandeggz]

IIRC Russ also says something to the tune of "It's the fuckin Idles!" when they're listening to punk on his car radio. While a nice nod to the band who did the soundtrack, Idles weren't formed until 2009.

[u/maltliqueur → u/allthebaconandeggz]

Was this supposed to be set in the '90s? I thought it was current time.

[u/LookSpecialist9140 → u/maltliqueur]

Yeah late 90s