Caught Stealing: Come For the ’90s New York Nostalgia, Stay For the Cat
By Chris Knight
Rating: A
There’s a very high body count in Caught Stealing, Darren Aronofsky’s violent, quasi-nostalgic ode to New York City in the late 1990s. But at the risk of being called a spoilsport, I’m here to tell you that the cat stays in the picture.
That’s good news, because Bud the cat, played by a Canadian feline named Tonic (also seen in 2019’s Pet Sematary), delivers one of the best performances in a movie this year. He’s cool and calm, has impeccable comic timing when it comes to knocking over beer bottles, and can even limp when the script requires it.
Also, he’s no more computer-generated than are his human co-stars, who are also pretty good as far as humans go. Austin Butler heads up that group as Hank Thompson, a washed-up baseball player tending bar in the midst of the Giuliani mayoral reign.
Hank’s got a sort-of girlfriend in Yvonne (Zoë Kravitz), although you can tell that commitment is not his strong suit. Well, unless we’re talking about his mother, whom he calls daily to kibbutz about the fate of San Francisco’s major league team on which he almost played, ending every call with a cheery chant of “Go Giants!”
Hank meets Bud when his neighbour Russ — Matt Smith as a punk with a Mohican and an East London accent so terrible he must have been taking the piss — leaves the cat in his care. Seems his dad back home is ailing, and he needs to pay a visit. The cat is described as “a biter,” but it takes to Hank instantly.
Not so friendly are the Russian mobsters who show up at Russ’s door the next day. Communicators of the hit-first-and-ask-questions-later variety, they put Hank in the hospital with a ruptured kidney.
He then has words with NYPD Detective Roman (the redoubtable Regina King), the coppiest movie cop this side of Dirty Harry. She warns him about “a couple of monsters,” Hasidic Jewish tough guys played by Liev Schreiber and Vincent D’Onofrio. Three guesses who shows up at Russ’s door next.
Hank soon learns that a large portion of New York’s underworld is looking for something that was left in Russ’s care — and now that Russ is gone, all eyes and suspicions turn to him. As blood is spilled and corpses pile up, he realizes he must find out what the MacGuffin is and deliver it to the bad guys, all without losing his own life. Or that of Bud the cat, another relationship in which he shows rare staying power.
Aronofsky, whose recent films have included Oscar bait (2022’s The Whale, which won two) and Oscar hate (2019’s Mother!, not nominated), steers a course between those extremes with Caught Stealing, which manages to be, despite its violence, a fun popcorn trip.
Some of that has to do with its early-digital-era vibe. (It was adapted by Charlie Huston from his own 2004 novel.) Hank has a neighbour who tells him he “designs web sites,” an occupation that causes Yvonne to giggle.
New York is still home to Kim’s Video (the last location closed in 2014) and Shea Stadium (demolished in 2008), not to mention the twin towers of the World Trade Centre, which feature prominently in the opening scene. And while cellphones are a thing, they’re still in their infancy; Russ warns Hank “Don’t use up my minutes” when he lends his.
It’s a fast-paced joyride, enlivened by great talent in even the smaller roles. Check out Carol Kane as Schreiber’s and D’Onofrio’s mom, or Griffin Dunne, who played Paul Hackett way back in 1985’s After Hours, and still goes by Paul in this one.
And as baseball fever takes Canada (or at least Toronto), you can even enjoy Hank’s turn as the Giants’ biggest out-of-town booster. Though — another spoiler I guess? — San Francisco lost their wild-card spot to the Cubs in 1998 in a tiebreaker that saw Barry Bonds twice come to the plate with the bases loaded, only to hit into an out each time.
Hank, wisely, turns off the TV before having to watch that ignominy.
Caught Stealing. Directed by Darren Aronofsky. Starring Austin Butler, Regina King, and Tonic the Cat. In theatres August 29.