Caught Stealing

Hey everyone, and welcome. Today, we will be talking about the film Caught Stealing. Fun Fact: Caught Stealing is adapted from a book by Charlie Huston, which is the first in a trio of books following Hank Thompson. This film came out in 2025 and stars Austin Butler, Regina King, and Zoe Kravitz and was directed by Darren Aronofsky. So without further ado, let's get right into it.

Caught stealing follows Hank who is thrown into the middle of some drama with the criminal underworld of New York in 1998.

Caught Stealing is a crime thriller. It has similar vibes to Challengers, No Country for Old Men, or The Penguin.

Caught Stealing caught my eye because I was very intrigued to see how this story would unfold, and to my surprise, it was a lot darker than I thought it was going to be. I was wondering why it was called “Caught Stealing,” which now I know is because it's based on a book of the same name. I think the title has to do with the fact that he is a baseball fan as well, and this idea of taking a risk that fails, which could be about Russ, since it's his fault he's in this mess and the job he did was risky, but also could be Hank when he's trying to decide which path to go down, which ends up getting people hurt that he cares about. The movie started a little slow, but once the gangsters made an appearance, it kept jumping from one thing to the next, which really made it feel like we were with Hank, being dragged through the mud, and had me eager to see how everything would play out.

The acting was great all around, which helped hide the plot twist, increase my stress, and make me believe these people were from this time period. There are normal people who come up in Hank's life who have become like a second family, and then you have some gangsters who shake some stuff up, and you just know they are going to make Hank's life even worse. Austin Butler leads the cast as Hank, a nice guy who is dealt a bad hand in life, and all the events in this movie just stressed me out, considering he ended up in many sticky situations. He gets so many people he cares about killed, and you can see how that affects him and how he really just wants out. Zoe Kravitz was great as Yvonne, who isn't in the movie long but makes an impact as you can see how much she cared for Hank, and he cared for her. With the way this film was marketed, I thought she was the co-lead, so her dying so early caught me off guard, but I think that would be a good way to not give away that big reveal. D’Pharoah Woon-A-Tai plays Dale, who has such a small but impactful role as the person who was killed by Hank in a car accident, for whom Hank feels so guilty. Then there is the real MVP, Dale, played by George Abud, who is just trying to get some peace and quiet and keeps getting interrupted and threatened and adds some comedy into the film. I love how Dale reminds them he builds websites and how he starts off being irritated all the time with the noise, but when he sees gangsters, he knows not to say anything.

The film has crooked cops and gangsters, which also shook things up and really made me nervous because either they were beating the crap out of Hank or killing someone he cared about. Regina King was great as this crooked cop, Roman,  working for the russian mob. She really had me believing she was going to help, only for her to betray him. Nikita Kukushkin was as crazy as Pavel, and I just never knew what he was going to do next since he seemed uncontrollable. He liked to headbutt things with his head, which was wild, and I was hoping that he would accidentally headbutt a wall. Matt Smith is a punk-influenced Brit named Russ who gets Hank into all this stuff because he forgot to tell the gangsters that he was leaving to deal with his dad, and you can tell he knows how bad it is, but doesn't really care about anyone but himself. Vincent D’Onofrio and Liev Shriber play Jewish mobsters who seem so nice but will also calmly shoot and bomb a party and kill Yvonne. Bad Bunny was a part of the Russian gangsters, and he seemed nice, but that was until he didn't get what he wanted. The film is just filled with these characters that were so bad that they are all going after Hank or somehow contributing to making his life worse.

The movie was very stressful, which helped make the time fly by because you never knew what was going to happen next. At the beginning of the film, he gets beaten up, and at first, I thought it wouldn't be that bad, but as they kept going, I realized it was. After this, he ends up in the hospital having his liver removed, and he keeps ending up in messes, which had me on the edge because he wasn't healed, and I just knew it hurt. He wasn't supposed to be drinking, and one night he was drinking, and that stressed me out because that can be dangerous with someone with no liver. It seemed like everywhere he turned, there was danger, whether that be the Russian or the Jewish gangsters who were after him. The constant stress feels kind of exhausting and made me think about how someone in that situation must feel.

The movie had a nice balance of plot twists to really keep the story going, but not too many to feel like the story was just trying to keep shocking you. The biggest one for me was Roman working with the Russians. I truly thought she was there to help and was being tough on him because she needed the info to help take down the criminals. In a crazy twist, the Russians meet her at a restaurant when she's talking to Hank, and that's when we realize they were working together. This scene made me question everything she said prior and had me rooting for her downfall. The other one that caught me off guard was Yvonne's dying. I knew she wasn't safe, but I didn't think that she would actually get killed. Even when they mentioned her, I thought they were bluffing until we saw her dead. Roman mentioned it was the jews, but after we see her working with the Russians, I thought she was lying, but to my surprise, she was telling the truth. In the end, Lipa pulls out Yvonnes' lighter, confirming that they killed her because Hank ran from them.

I loved how the film used the flashback scenes as a way to convey exposition. We see how Hank got into an accident prior to the events of the film and killed his passenger after he dodged a cow. The film shows clips of this scene throughout the movie, and then there is a point in the movie where they show you everything that happened, which helps you understand Hank's choices. He rubs the scar on his knee which he got from that accident, He still has nightmares about the accident, he wont drive because of the accident, he loves baseball, more specifically the giants,  and would die to play professionally but knows he cant because of his injury, and the most important thing which is that he feels guilt for killing his friend because at the moment all he cared about is that he ruined his knee which ruined his MLB aspirations instead of worrying about his dead friend. While it is technically his fault the guy died because he was driving, it's still sad that the guy died so horribly, and how it haunts Hank still so much and affects his life. I loved that the thing that haunted him comes back around when he drives into a pole at the end and kills the Jewish gangsters, but this time he does it on purpose as revenge.

There were some back stories I did want to know more about that I wish the film had included. I was curious if more Jewish or Russian gangsters in the city would come after him. With the ones introduced, I was also interested in learning a bit more about why they were the ones going after this money and if there was someone putting pressure on them to get it back.

I loved that in the end, his plan to escape was the one that Roman and Russ had, which was Tulum, which Roman mentioned, and stealing the money, which Russ mentioned. He sends some of the money to his mom, who we never see until that scene who played by Laura Dern, which made me excited cause I just rewatched Jurassic Park which I love her in and she's an icon. I'm glad she survived and has a nice cushion at the end of the movie to live comfortably.

My favorite part of this movie was when Hank decided to take his life into his own hands instead of just accepting anything it threw at him. He had been running the entire movie, and he finally had a moment to reflect on all that he's lost running and how his accident made him not want to face anything head-on on but with everything that's happened, he needed to come up with a plan. He convinces the Jewish gangsters to go after the Russians, saying they have the key. The Russians almost get away, but Hank knocks the headbutter out and then stabs Roman in the foot, and Lipa kills her. They force him to drive in the end to get away, and he's reluctant and does so, and that seemed like the end of his plan, but then Lipa pulls out the lighter that Yvonne had, which I kinda forgot about, and kills them. I just loved how he knew that these people were capable of a lot and realized he needed to take them out. He may not have been a killer, but he was underestimated, so they had no clue he was going to be able to handle them.

Caught Stealing is a thrilling movie that just had me questioning how it would all turn out. The cast performances stood out, and while the beginning was a little slow, it picks up and doesn't let up. I really hope they adapt the other books because I'm curious how this will all play out.