Caught Stealing – Review

It is 1998 and the place is Paul’s Bar in New York City. Bartender Hank Thompson (Butler) is telling the patrons that it is last call. The owner Paul (Dunne) counts the cash of the night’s haul. It is a typical evening for Hank, an ex-baseball phenom from L.A. who made a bad decision in the past which cost him his potential pro career. He still loves the game however, and talks to his mom about the Giants virtually daily.

Hank lives a simple life now, but still has regrets over what could have been. His girl Yvonne (Kravitz) helps keep him in line, and as he gets home late, he finds his punk rocker neighbor Russ (Smith) taking off for London as his dad is in the hospital. Russ tells him to look after his cat “Bud” (Tonic) as he will be out for a while. Despite being a dog guy, Hank takes in the cat for a few days.

Life is mundane for Hank, so he drinks it all away on a regular basis. Booze has always run through his veins, despite it leading to the disaster that cost him his shot at the baseball pro draft. Some habits die hard.

After getting home to his apartment one night, two thugs Pavel (Kukushkin) and Aleksei (Kolokolnikov) approach him quickly, asking where Russ is. Hank is barely able to get any information out before they lay a beating on him, specifically by the smaller guy Pavel, or his nickname Microbe, which leaves him bleeding on the ground as the thugs walk off unsatisfied. Russ is clearly mixed up with some bad people, and now Hank is paying for it.

Unsure of what the thugs truly wanted, Hank wakes in the hospital after the bad beating. His life will again be forever changed. This sets up his tale of criminal insanity, wading through an underworld of bad players and even worse violent thugs. More importantly, the Giants are only a few games behind in the playoff run, and Bud the Cat needs protection.

Caught Stealing is an expertly shot and acted dramatic criminal affair. It is laced with some humor, despite its dark story. The book author which it is based on also did the screenplay for this feature. It is an entertaining thrill ride through seedy New York streets however also features plenty of violence that keeps it grounded. The characters are all interesting and most are multi-layered, and the internal struggle of the main player Hank is very well realized.

While I typically do not love the director’s work, this one definitely worked for me all around. He produces quality work for sure, but usually the stories are not what I wind up liking much. Aronofsky’s most popular films I don’t usually like that much, while his more controversial or split-audience features I do wind up liking sometimes, so this one was a pleasant surprise for me.