Austin Butler is the VIP in this action-packed crime drama with baseball roots
Caught Stealing
Starring Austin Butler, Zoë Kravitz and Regina King
Directed by Aaron Aronofsky
Rated R
In theaters Friday Aug. 29
Austin Butler shook us up as Elvis, oozed Manson-cult menace in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and rip-roared across the Midwest as one of The Bike Riders. Now he really brings the heat in this brisk, bracing action-thriller as a good-guy everyman who finds himself caught up in a messy, dangerous and deadly web of underworld crime—all because he agreed to cat-sit for a neighbor.
Butler plays Hank Thompson (from the book series by Charlie Huston), a bartender in Manhattan’s gritty Lower East Side in the late 1990s. We learn how Hank’s youthful, fresh-faced baseball dreams were derailed a decade ago by a car accident. The movie leans into the baseball motif, reflected in its title, in more ways than one; as a transplanted Californian, Hank remains a big Giants fan, talks about games long-distance with his mom, and still knows how to swing a bat—which, it turns out, can come in quite handy.
The movie has a terrific cast of supporting players. There’s Zoë Kravitz as Hank’s sexy paramedic girlfriend; the sensuality of their chemistry together is palpable. A colorfully mohawked Matt Smith, from Dr. Who and The Crown, is Hank’s across-the-hall neighbor. Vincent D’Onofrio and Liev Shreiber are a hoot as Orthodox Jewish gangsters (who can’t drive on Shabbos). Rapper Bad Bunny (whose real name is Benito Martínez Ocasio) is a terrifying thug. Regina King plays a compromised cop with a fondness for black-and-white cookies. You’ll also see Carol Kane, get a glimpse of Laura Dern, and discover Griffin Dunne as a grizzled bar owner.
Along the way, there’s also a missing key to something, some $4 million in purloined cartel cash, a car chase around the Unisphere in Queens, and much ado about a squeaky rubber coin purse that looks like poop. But these are minor distractions in a movie that belongs to Butler, who carries it with sexy, sculpted heft start to finish—along with the very charismatic cat, Tonic, a real scene-stealer. Director Aaron Aronofsky (The Black Swan, The Whale, The Wrestler) keeps this wild ride twisty, turn-y and crazily unpredictable, while adding emotional depth and backstory to Hank’s character. It’s violent and bloody as the bullets fly, bodies pile up and Hank gets the bejesus beaten out of him eight ways from Sunday. But there’s also a vein of humor woven throughout, even in the psycho taunting of a runt-y mobster (Russian actor Nikita Kukushkin) who loves making baseball jokes while throwing punches.
The real power punch, though, is delivered by Butler, the VIP in this action-packed bruiser of a crowd-pleaser. The camera loves him, and it’s easy to see why: He’s a real charmer, even when scampering—and fighting—for his life. You’ll get caught up in the crazy, propulsively spunky high energies of Caught Stealing, watching the actor who memorably hunka-hunka’d Elvis now matching wits with monstrous Russian mobsters. Butler comes out swinging and knocks it out of the park.
—Neil Pond
The Media Tourist 