Darren Aronofsky’s nostalgic ’90s rampage

Director Darren Aronofsky has described his new, ‘90s thriller Caught Stealing as a “romp”. It’s not the word you’d typically associate with the uncompromising mind behind 2000’s brutal, unflinching Requiem For A Dream and 2010’s dark, twisting Black Swan. His last movie, 2022’s divisive The Whale, saw him controversially cast Brendan Fraser as a morbidly obese recluse.

That film was a challenging watch, which is perhaps why the auteur has bounced back with a retro caper that seems determined to show you a good time via nostalgia, heart-pounding action and a pumping soundtrack courtesy of IDLES.

It’s 1998 and we’re in cheap, dirty old New York City, a few years before the suits rolled in and spoiled the fun. Austin Butler plays Hank, a bitter former baseball ace who’s swapped the batting cage for a job in a dingy bar on the Lower East Side, where he drowns his sorrows before heading home to his filthy apartment. Here, he romances his sort-of girlfriend Yvonne (Zoë Kravitz) and butts heads with his antisocial, spectacularly mohawked punk neighbour, Russ (Matt Smith).

When Russ abruptly heads to the UK for a family emergency, he asks Hank to babysit his adorable cat, Bud. This small act of kindness backfires when it turns out that some very bad dudes (including a gangster played by Bad Bunny) are looking for Russ, who has something valuable that belongs to them. With the punk out of the picture, they’re now looking at Hank for answers.

Thus begins a deeply entertaining ride replete with hairpin turns (both plot-wise and through a series of white-knuckle car chases), comic book-style characters and more shoot-outs than you can shake a baseball bat at. It’s essentially a tongue-in-cheek pastiche of the ‘90s thriller trope that sees an ordinary person become embroiled in a conspiracy and go on the run, as in The Fugitive and Enemy Of The State. Those flicks are indeed a lot of fun, which is what Aronofsky wanted to offer whilst the real word is in such a mess.

For all the escapism, though, some of the violence here is genuinely hard-hitting – and the director does try to summon the griminess of ‘90s New York: a gruesome close-up of a blocked toilet caused groans of disgust at the screening NME attended. Yet this is ultimately a fantastical fairy tale about people who are supposed to be losers but look suspiciously like gorgeous winners with fabulous lives. Hank is exceptionally ripped for a washed-up alcoholic, while you’ll drool at the prospect of being able to afford his sprawling apartment on a barman’s salary (even if it could do with a spring clean).

The tone is thus a little uneven, with the movie at times just feeling like a pale imitation of those aforementioned ‘90s thrillers – think The Dare versus LCD Soundsystem – which becomes more problematic as the plot grows ever dafter. If Caught Stealing’s not quite a home run, it is a nail-biter that’ll have you hooked until the final play.