Caught Stealing 2025 is a bit dark for a comedy, but way too bright for Aronofsky

  Blender Dumbass
November 12, 2025

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#CaughtStealing #DarrenAronofsky #ZoeKravitz #AustinButler #film #review #movies #cinemastodon

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Vincent D'Onofrio pops up on my radar lately. I somehow get attracted to the same movies as the actor, which probably means that I need to review Full Metal Jacket by Stanley Kubrick, where D'Onofrio had his, probably, most iconic role. In any case D'Onofrio played an Ashkenazi Jewish gangster motherfucker in a Darren Aronofsky 2025 film Caught Stealing. Something that I had to see, just based on the absurdity of it.

Knowing the kind of movies Aronofsky usually makes, which tend to be border-line suicidal, Caught Stealing is surprisingly tame in comparison. Yet, not-knowing the kind of movies Aronofsky usually makes, you may come to a conclusion that what I just said means that the movie is a fun film without a single depressive thought. It is not that at all. If anything it is something like Ari Aster's Beau is Afraid, but where the main character is calmer.

In both films a relatively normal life of the main character really quickly goes down the drain as shit keeps and keeps and keeps hitting the fan over and over again. Beau is Afraid is a horror film where this kind of thing means we get to such a level of intensity that it crosses the uncomfortable line into parody. While Caught Stealing tries to keep the situations under a certain level, to try to have a fun thrill ride. Yet in the end of the day, you sort of feel similar about the two movies. It is also interesting that both films are made by directors that otherwise make rather dark films. And that both Aronofsky and Aster are Jewish.

So here is the premise in broad strokes: A guy ( Austin Butler ) is asked by a neighbor friend ( Matt Smith ) to watch over his cat, while he flies to London for a few days. As soon as he is gone, goons from the Russian mafia start looking for him. They are played by two very interesting motherfuckers: We have Nikita Kukushkin ( Никита Кукушкин ) who may know from a Russian TV show from 2006 called Кадетство, which weirdly enough I remember watching on TV back when I was still living in Ukraine. This Nikita's character in the film ( Pavel ) is so utterly hilariously unhinged, I could not stop laughing. Like, yeah, his unhingeness is scary when he is a threat. But he also acts like a total moron most of the other times. And it is just simply amazing. And then to balance him out, the other Russian goon is played by Yuri Kolokolnikov ( Юрий Колокольников ) who you may know from Michael Bay's film 6 Underground and Christopher Nolan's film Tenet. And he is a serious motherfucker.

So these two motherfuckers are looking for the guy who just fled to London. And fall on our hero instead. Which begins a spiral of unfortunate events that leads to a lot of illegal shit, murder and other scary and sometimes utterly disgusting stuff ( for example a big part of the plot revolves around cat poop ).

The casting of Zoë Kravitz as the girlfriend character, in my opinion is brilliant. But it has nothing to do with Zoë's skill, per se. Yes she is good. I mean she is motherfucking Zoë Kravitz, but the fact that she was cast specifically in this role ( given the plot of the film ) makes the film so much stronger, emotionally.

Also something specifically for me in the casting of Zoë Kravitz feels strangely weird. I have a brother who is about 11 right now, who's face reminds the face of Zoë Kravitz. They look alike. So watching anything where she is in is a bit uncanny for me. But that is not all. Remember in 2010 Aronofsky directed Black Swan, with Natalie Portman? Well Portman at age 11-12 ( in the movie Leon: The Professional ) also looked like my brother. The same one. Also both Kravitz and Portman are Jewish... Yeah... Something about Aronofsky's choices in regard to his female actors makes me feel weird.

Directing-wise the movie oozes with cinema. I don't feel like Aronofsky specifically knows what the hell he is doing, when it comes to this material specifically. It has tense thriller type, tension building sequences. And action sequences. And all of them are made very well. It just feels like Aronofsky is playing with the form a lot, like a kid who never seen it before. His direction of the big car chase scene somewhat reminds me what I saw Paul Thomas Anderson do on One Battle After Another. It is good stuff. But it is primarily good, because the directors are good directors who never done it before. They can apply their knowledge of cinematic language ( which they developed making some top notch drama pictures ) to an action scene. And it results in some marvelous cinema. Let's put it like this: Aronofsky is not Michael Bay. He will not try to maximize the visual stimulation of an action scene, which is something Michael Bay specifically is very fucking good at. But he will play with how to stage / film everything, to make it very fun to watch.

Happy Hacking!!!

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  Blender Dumbass c:0


Okay wait a fucking second. Regina King who plays the cop lady in Caught Stealing is playing the wife of Will Smith's character in Tony Scott's Enemy of the State, where the secret girlfriend character is played by Lisa Bonet ( the mother of Zoë Kravitz ). And also interesting that Zoë Kravitz used to be married to Karl Glusman between 2019 and 2021. The same Karl Glusman that played the boyfriend character in Nicolas Winding Refn's The Neon Demon.

That makes a whole circle back to the Fanning sisters. And to Man on Fire stuff. Hm...

Reply

  Troler c:1



Do you have a crush on her?

... replies ( 1 )

  Blender Dumbass c:2



@Troler Not really. no... I have a crush on Isabela Merced though.

Reply

  Blender Dumbass c:2

... c:1

  Troler c:1

Also something specifically for me in the casting of Zoë Kravitz feels strangely weird. I have a brother who is about 11 right now, who's face reminds the face of Zoë Kravitz. They look alike

Do you have a crush on her?

@Troler Not really. no... I have a crush on Isabela Merced though.

Reply