Every year, certain films are declared as the most noteworthy (best?) by various critics groups and Oscar voters. Many of the same titles appear on the list of critics association awards, guild (DGA, SAG, WGA) nominations and Oscar projections.
However, dozens of other titles end up getting lost along the way, due to variousreasons, including an all-too-brief stint in theaters to build a word-of-mouth.
Some go on to streaming devices; others just vanish.
Overlooked means critics weren’t on board, even if many viewers disagreed. Or maybe it had upwards of 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, like Kristen Stewart’s directing debut “Chronology of Water,” but didn’t get attention during initial limited release in a brutally tough theatrical market for indie films.
Or maybe, like “Jingle Bell Heist,” they are labeled “Holiday Movies,” a subgenre that doesn’t usually get respect from reviewers.
There are other genre films (especially horror) that are just as well-crafted and engaging as awards bait, but end up getting lost in the shuffle.
AMOUR
Which is why we established in early 2025 a digital global club called AMOUR (Films that, for whatever reasons, were Abandoned, Misunderstood, Overlooked, Underestimated, Revisited).
Caught Stealing
Grade: B
A freewheeling throwback, Caught Stealing bears a lighter tone and less intense text than those of most others Aronofsky’s pictures.
Austin Butler plays Hank, a bartender who is left to look after his neighbor’s cat. When his neighbor, a punk rocker, gets in trouble with gangsters, Hank finds himself in the midst if the chaos. It doesn’t help that Hank himself is something of a screwup, due to a traumatic past.
Aronofsky sets the action in 1990s New York City, staging the unpredictable saga with authentic grit and grounded gusto. In the process, his film offers one of the year’s most thrilling action sequences, a car chase through Flushing Meadows.
Detailed Synopsis
In 1998, Henry “Hank” Thompson (Butler), a bartender living on the Lower East Side, calls his mother in Patterson, California regularly to discuss their love of the San Francisco Giants. Hank is haunted by a drunken car crash that killed his friend and ended his baseball ambitions, leaving him alcoholic.
Hank’s neighbor Russ Miner (Matt Smith) return to London to see his ailing father, and asks Hank to care for his cat, Bud.
Two Russian mobsters, Aleksei and Pavel, search for Russ and viciously beat Hank. Narcotics detective Elise Roman (Oscar winner Regina King) questions Hank, revealing that Russ is a drug dealer linked to the notorious Hasidic Drucker brothers.
Interrogated by the Russians and their Puerto Rican associate Colorado, Hank cannot remember what happened to the key. Hank leaves the injured Bud with his girlfriend Yvonne (Zoë Kravitz), and remembers taking the key to the bar. Realizing she is in danger, Hank races to her apartment only to find her killed.
A guilt-stricken Hank confides in Roman, who tells him of her dreams of retiring to Tulum before revealing to be in league with Colorado and the Russians.
Meeting with Roman and the Russians, Hank offers them Russ and the key in exchange for Bud. Russ panics and kills Aleksei before escaping with Hank and Bud.
As they arrive at the club, Hank is restrained to the steering wheel, but he breaks free when seeing Roman flee and chases her, impaling her foot with the broken baseball bat handle.
In the end, Hank crashes the car, which kills the two brothers. He then escapes to Tulum while posing as Russ, mailing half of the money to his mother (Laura Dern, uncredited).
Caught Stealing world premiered on August 7, 2025, in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, with Aronofsky, Butler, and Bad Bunny (credited by birth name Benito A. Martínez Ocasio) in attendance. The idea was to promote the island, which coincided with Bad Bunny’s sold-out concert residency, heldclose to the theater.
What Went Wrong?
Caught Stealing is certainky not one of Aronfsky;s best films (The Wrestler, Black Swan), but why did it fail so miserably to find viewers.
Austin Butler’s natural (and proven) star charisma did not help much the commercial prospects of the film, which grossed $19 million domestically and $12 million internationally, for worldwide total of $32 million, against a budget of $50 million.
Critical response was positive (84% on Rotten Tomatoes). Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of “B.”
Timing of release? The film hit U.S. theaters on Labor Day Weekend, August 29, 2025.
Cast
Austin Butler as Henry “Hank” Thompson
Matt Smith as Russ Miner
Regina King as Det. Elise Roman
Zoë Kravitz as Yvonne
Liev Schreiber as Lipa Drucker
Vincent D’Onofrio as Shmully Drucker
Benito Martínez Ocasio as Colorado
Griffin Dunne as Paul
Carol Kane as Bubbe
Action Bronson as Amtrak
George Abud as Duane
Nikita Kukushkin as Pavel
Yuri Kolokolnikov as Aleksei
Laura Dern as Hank’s mother (uncredited)
