{"id":31919,"date":"2025-08-28T00:58:57","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T07:58:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=31919"},"modified":"2025-08-28T00:58:57","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T07:58:57","slug":"caught-stealing-is-eccentric-but-ultimately-engrossing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=31919","title":{"rendered":"CAUGHT STEALING is Eccentric, But Ultimately Engrossing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Running Time: 107 minutes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This feature from Sony Pictures opens exclusively at\ntheaters on August 29th<\/sup>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m very lucky to be a movie critic. I often get asked to\npress screenings, which means that the film begins exactly at the listed time.\nAs a result, I don\u2019t see many trailers and often opt to go into the theater\nwithout having seen any advertising about the movie. During a recent vacation,\nI needed to catch up on a title and went to the cinema. In the process, I saw\nseveral previews before the main attraction. One was for Caught Stealing<\/em>,\na new crime\/comedy film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After seeing the actual film, it reminded me that\nadvertising departments aren\u2019t always presenting the clearest vision of the\nproject. Yes, there is plenty of dark humor in this picture, but it is first\nand foremost a crime story that takes audiences down a dark path. Given that\nthis feature is from director Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream, The\nSwan, The Wrestler, The Whale<\/em>), I probably shouldn\u2019t have expected\nsidesplitting humor and a breezy action film. And to be honest, at the\nbeginning some of the humor didn\u2019t land with me. But as events heated up and I\ntreated it more as a crime film with the odd chuckler here and there, the film\nended up converting me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The story is set in the late 1990s and follows Henry \u201cHank\u201d\nThompson (Austin Butler), a waiter at a New York dive bar. He\u2019s got a kind\ngirlfriend in paramedic Yvonne (Zo\u00eb Kravitz), but is still haunted by a tragedy\nand spends much of his off-time drinking and obsessing over his favorite\nbaseball team. One day, the lead\u2019s punk neighbor Russ (Matt Smith) says he has\na family emergency in London and that Hank must attend to his cat\u2019s needs while\nhe\u2019s away. Hank begrudgingly accepts, only to be beaten nastily a short time\nlater by a pair of goons (Nikita Kukushkin and Yuri Kolokolnikov).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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During his recovery, Detective Roman (Regina King) gives Hank trouble, telling him the men are part of the Russian mob and suggesting he must be involved in their operations. The protagonist denies any wrongdoing, only to be threatened by a wide variety of underworld figures (played by the likes of Benito A. Martinez Ocasio aka Bad Bunny, Liev Schreiber, Vincent D\u2019Onofrio and more). As Hank attempts to avoid being killed, he is also forced to come to terms with his past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a fair amount of humor in the first act as the\nscreenplay introduces Hank, Yvonne and various other locals. There are brief\nsnippets of the traumatizing event, interspersed between the character flirting\nwith Yvonne and joking with eccentric associates. While there are a few\nchuckles, some of this material doesn\u2019t come across as overly jocular. And\nperhaps some of that quirkiness is muted by the threats that appear early on.\nThe various assaults on Hank and innocent parties around him are played in a\nbrutal, blunt and violent fashion. So, the odd tone of the movie does take some\ngetting used to.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Thankfully, the cast are wonderful and do an exceptional job\nof melding the strange elements together. In spite of his past and other\nissues, Butler is a likable protagonist, in over his head and without a clue of\nwhat is happening or why. All of the cast are memorable, including a few\nfamiliar faces who appear in supporting roles (there is also a surprise cameo\nduring the closing credits). And as the tension rises and we see an increasing\nnumber of shocking and unexpected events, the story becomes more and more\nengrossing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The photography is excellent, successfully creating a gritty\natmosphere. The images even have an intentionally grainy appearance that helps\nhighlight the menace of the lead being chased down alleys and through various\nlocations. When the action occurs (as well as during a few quieter moments),\nit\u2019s shot in a dynamic way with clever camera angles. There are exciting shots\nwhen Hank is pursued down the street and into a business, some remarkable stunt\ndriving, as well as a frequently repeated slow-motion image that makes a\nlasting impression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Admittedly, this is an odd picture. I initially didn\u2019t think\nthe humor or story was gelling in the first act, but that may have been my\nproblem due to seeing that misleading trailer (and I will<\/em> stop watching\nthem now for the foreseeable future). However, as the story and characters\ndeveloped, the thrills followed and the occasional quip earned a laugh, I\nrealized that I simply needed time to get on the movie\u2019s specific wavelength.\nIf you don\u2019t mind eccentric crime pictures and can give it a chance, Caught\nStealing<\/em> should win you over. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Running Time: 107 minutes This feature from Sony Pictures opens exclusively at theaters on August 29th. I\u2019m very lucky to be a movie critic. I often get asked to press screenings, which means that the film begins exactly at the listed time. As a result, I don\u2019t see many trailers and often opt to go […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":31923,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[216,697,2052,2199,4027,4028,4029,4030,4660,4910,5245,12533,13432,16824,18704,18709,22825,23808,24778],"class_list":["post-31919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-216","tag-action","tag-austin-butler","tag-bad-bunny","tag-caught-stealing","tag-caught-stealing-film-review","tag-caught-stealing-movie-review","tag-caught-stealing-review","tag-comedy","tag-crime","tag-darren-aronofsky","tag-live-schreiber","tag-matt-smith","tag-regina-king","tag-sony","tag-sony-pictures","tag-thriller","tag-vincent-donofrio-2","tag-zoe-kravitz"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31919\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}