Caught Stealing review: ‘Darren Aronofsky’s most enjoyable romp in years’ ★★★★★

This film has energy to burn and plenty of shocks you won’t see coming. It’s also got a deliciously eclectic cast

Not since 2010’s Holy Rollers, with Jesse Eisenberg as a young man who becomes embroiled in a drug-trafficking ring, has an American movie depicted such nefarious Orthodox Jews. Likewise, it’s hard to remember a film referencing Shabbat as much as this – at least since the Coens’ 1990s caper The Big Lebowski.

If it all sounds like Aronofsky, and writer Charlie Huston – who adapts from his own novel – might be mocking Judaism, that’s simply not the case. Schreiber’s Lipa and D’Onofrio’s Shmully, dubbed “scary monsters” by Regina King’s hard-nut cop Ramon, are not to be messed with, as Hank discovers to his cost.

Like Martin Scorsese’s urban drama After Hours, Caught Stealing sucks its protagonist into an escalating nightmare. And all because he does a good deed, looking after his neighbour Russ’s cat.

It turns out that Russ (Matt Smith), a British punk who feels like Kenny Everett’s old character Gizzard Puke, is a minor drug-dealer. Within hours of him flying back to London to visit his ailing father, Hank finds two Russian thugs at Russ’s doorstep, who don’t take kindly to his interference.

They beat him senseless, rupturing his kidney – just the first battering he takes in an increasingly bruising few days, where he’ll encounter all manner of wrong ’uns after Russ, who has something they all want.

With a score provided by British post-punk band Idles, this film has energy to burn and plenty of shocks you won’t see coming. It’s also got a deliciously eclectic cast, including Zoë Kravitz as Hank’s paramedic girlfriend, Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny as one of those felons after Russ and, best of all, Carol Kane as a bubbe, a Jewish matriarch who takes kindly to Hank when he’s scooped by Lipa and Shmully. “If you can’t bite, don’t show your teeth,” she warns – advice that Hank really does take to heart.

With plenty of nods to Brooklyn as it once was (Hank even trots past the famed store Kim’s Video, where many a cineaste cut their teeth), this is a classy thriller that straps you in for the ride.

Butler, the Oscar-nominated star of Elvis, convincingly delivers an edgy Everyman turn here. Hank may not be the sharpest tool in the box – he refuses to stop drinking after his kidney is damaged – but he’s likeable enough to root for. Crime doesn’t pay, they say. Well, you may need to rethink that after watching this.

Certificate 15