Caught Stealing (2025)

Thriller/Comedy
Rated 15

Spoiler Free

Dazza! AKA Darren Aronofsky, a director with admirable devotion to diverse genres and stories, with style out the wazoo, but with mixed results. Check out these spoiler free reviews of his eclectic mix of moviemaking: Mother!, The Whale, The Fountain, Requiem for a Dream. Caught Stealing is another shimmy and a feint stylistically.

Austin Butler, Timothee Chalamet’s hard but just as beautiful older brother is Hank, a formerly promising baseball player who gets way in over his head. Criminals and capers ensue. Matt Smith suits the role as a scummy bastard so well, and that’s meant as a complement. His character in House of the Dragon is a dick cheese too, only he has a dragon and sense of entitlement; Russ is way more real and played pitch perfect.

There are other good performances, mainly all as gangsters, Hasidic Jews, or a cat*. Mad-cap twists and turns. Funny, tense, violent. My kinda trout, as my mate would say.

Caught Stealing isn’t all whizzbang edits as Aronofsky is known for, but it is ferociously exciting and vastly more engaging than The Whale. Ketamine holes are more engaging than The Whale, though. I’ve never been in a k-hole, but it is fucking impossible to play FIFA against someone who is. Especially when you still only manage a draw.

A hugely entertaining crime romp and for a simple set up there’s so much going on. Dazza might not make another film like Caught Stealing again given his propensity to dance around, like a Hollywood Michael Winterbottom, always with a new shiny thing to try. That’s a shame, but if the man keeps making great films, who the hell cares. Someone else will make another Caught Stealing, it’s that kind of film.

Bedsit it?

Caught Stealing is brilliant for what it is. Pure fun and very hard not to like. 8/10

*An actual cat (Tonic) plays this role, and it's very convincing. Much better than their Pet Sematary performance, way less believable cat there.

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