Movie · 2025 · Crime, Thriller, Comedy · 1h 47m · R · English
Curator score: 4.1/10 (643.3K ratings)
2 Russians, 2 Jews, and a Puerto Rican walk into a bar...
Overview
Burned-out ex-baseball player Hank Thompson unexpectedly finds himself embroiled in a dangerous struggle for survival amidst the criminal underbelly of late 1990s New York City, forced to navigate a treacherous underworld he never imagined.
Ratings
Curator score: 4.1/10
IMDb: 6.8/10
Letterboxd: 3.40/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 85%
Metacritic: 65
TMDB: 6.9/10
Director
Darren Aronofsky
Production
Protozoa Pictures, TSG Entertainment, Columbia Pictures
Cast
Austin Butler, Regina King, Zoë Kravitz, Matt Smith, Liev Schreiber, Vincent D'Onofrio, Griffin Dunne, Nikita Kukushkin, Yuri Kolokolnikov, Bad Bunny, George Abud, Will Brill, D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Action Bronson, Natassia Dreams, Shaun O'Hagan, Jake Bentley Young, Kitty Lawrence, Mike Francesa, Chris 'Mad Dog' Russo
Where to watch
Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads
Curator Review
Verdict
A slick, grimy crime-comedy with a strong late-90s New York vibe and enough momentum to stay entertaining, but it sounds more like a well-cast genre exercise than a fully sharp or consistently dangerous one. The cat, the ensemble energy, and the “ordinary guy in over his head” setup give it personality, even if the script doesn’t always trust its own premise.
Best for
Viewers who like crime capers with dark humor
Fans of late-90s New York underworld stories
People who enjoy charismatic leads in escalating bad-luck scenarios
Audiences looking for a lighter Aronofsky detour
Skip if
You want a truly tense or brutal thriller
You prefer tightly engineered plotting over vibe and character
You dislike crime stories that lean on humor and star appeal
You’re expecting the director’s most intense, formally ambitious work
Overview
Caught Stealing plays like a bruised, joke-tinged descent through a very specific New York underworld, with a burned-out protagonist who keeps stumbling deeper into trouble. The appeal is less in surprise than in texture: the neighborhood chaos, the criminal oddballs, and the sense that every bad decision gets punished immediately.
Worth noting
The film seems to work best when it leans into its hangout-crime energy and the contrast between an ordinary, exhausted lead and increasingly absurd danger. That gives it some of the shaggy charm of a street-level caper, even if the plotting can feel familiar and the comedy doesn’t always land as hard as it wants to.
Bottom line
If you’re in the mood for a stylish, slightly mean, occasionally funny crime spiral, it should go down easily. If you want Aronofsky at his most punishing or most formally extreme, this sounds more like a detour than a destination.
Top Letterboxd reviews
evan (4★) · 13405 likes
the san francisco giants hat STAYS ON during sex
thenotoriousjac (3.5★) · 10273 likes
Half of this movie is just Austin Butler showing us he's so hot right now
mikko (3★) · 7506 likes
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Jake Alda Coffey (4★) · 6629 likes
This is why I don’t do favors for my neighbors
Jake (3★) · 5219 likes
not risky enough to feel dangerous. not clever enough to be funny.
10% more "talking to a cat" moments would've put it on Argylle levels. enjoyable, occasionally gripping - but locked behind a Save-The-Cat screenplay that doesn't ever trust the audience.
1998 · Crime, Drama, Thriller · 2h 1m · R · Curator 8.0/10 (147.9K ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, MGM Plus, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Another story about ordinary people making one terrible choice and then spiraling into deeper trouble.