August 29, 2025

In the hands of a lesser director and star, "Caught Stealing" might have been a mess, but with Darren Aronofsky and Austin Butler driving behind and in front of the camera, respectively, it ends up feeling like a mess by design. The movie is all over the place in terms of plot and plausibility, and for the first quarter of it, we question why we should even care about Hank Thompson, Butler's character, a bartender and alcoholic, who's presumably nobody special. But shortly into it, we buy into the freneticism, and we can see that Hank, despite being light on ambition, is friendly, loyal, and flawed in ways that we can identify with.