Caught Stealing (2025)

Matt Smith as a punk rocker. That is literally all it took for me to decide I wanted to see Darren Aronofsky’s latest film. One thing was for sure before I watched this film and that it was not going to be as downbeat and borderline depressing as ‘The Whale’. The set up of the film is Austin Butler plays Hank who after drink driving killed his friend and ended his potentially successful baseball career, he is asked to look after the cat belonging to Russ (Matt Smith) while he goes to the UK. People are after Russ and it turns out he has money that some groups were supposed to have split between them. 

I did find Matt Smith to be the funniest part of the film. There was something preposterous about the fact that he looks like he does. It might be the fact I am a Doctor Who but there was something about the fact he kept swearing which just came across as humorous. Whether that was what Aronofsky was intending was unclear. Also not to sound like a prude but the c-word was used several times still managed to only get a 15 certificate. It is quite impressive how we have developed where we can cope with the c-word.

Austin Butler is quite good as Hank. There is something likeable about him as he is trying to remember where the key that he needs to find for the crazy people. He does have to do a funny British impression which must have made Dick van Dyke want to call his lawyer for copyright infringement. Zoe Kravitz is not in the film very much. She was quite good as Yvonne and it does feel slightly out of left field when she is killed. It was abrupt and it lacked any real emotional impact. The chemistry between Kravitz and Butler was really good and it would have served the film better if she had made it to the end and run away with Hank but at least the cat survived although he probably lost at least three of his nine lives during the course of this film. I also liked how New York looked. I know films and TV shows set in New York are quite common but Matthew Libatique deserves a lot of credit for making the whole film look brilliant. 

I thought that Caught Stealing was good enough but I don't think that it's going to be a big hit unless there are a lot of people who want to see Matt Smith with a mohawk. I also think that the comedy doesn't quite work as well as it could have done and so as a result falls just a little short of being at the top of most people’s films of the year.