Caught Stealing is set in 1998 on Manhattan's Lower East Side and centers on Hank, a former baseball prospect whose career ended after a car accident. Hank works closing shifts at a bar and relies on his girlfriend Yvonne while battling heavy drinking. A favor to neighbor Russ spirals into violence when men searching for Russ encounter Hank, plunging him into conflict with the Russian mob, law enforcement, and two ruthless Orthodox Jews. The film plays as a crime comedy reminiscent of Good Time and Elmore Leonard capers, marking a notable tonal shift for director Darren Aronofsky toward humor despite some implausible physical survivals.
Director Darren Aronofsky opens Caught Stealing by grounding it immediately in a time and place: 1998, the Lower East Side of Manhattan, closing time at the bar where Hank ( Austin Butler) works. Hank once had a chance at playing professional baseball, but a car accident stripped that dream away from him years ago; now, he's on the verge of a full-tilt drinking problem, but keeping his head above water with more than a little support from his girlfriend Yvonne ( Zoë Kravitz).
It all starts to go wrong for Hank, though, when his neighbor Russ ( Matt Smith) asks him to cat-sit while Russ heads out of town. Soon, some guys are looking for Russ, and when they find Hank instead, the situation quickly gets out of hand. Soon, Hank's on the run from the Russian mob, the cops, and two Orthodox Jews (Vincent D'Onofrio, Liev Schreiber) who might be the deadliest of them all.
There are a few elements of Caught Stealing that feel off enough to transcend one's suspension of disbelief - for example, Hank's ability to walk, let alone run, after experiencing the amount of physical trauma this movie inflicts upon him. Yet it's genuinely refreshing to see Aronofsky behind the camera on a movie that's more than a little willing to have fun.
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