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Throughout his career Darren Aronofsky has crafted movies that are as dreamlike as they are realistic, as tenderhearted as they are vicious. But in the years since his groundbreaking work in Requiem for a Dream (2000), Black Swan (2010), and even the still highly divisive Mother! (2017), other directors, influenced by Aronofsky, have taken up his mantle. And it is this feeling that the mentor is now “homaging” the mentee can be felt in Aronofsky’s latest feature, Caught Stealing.

On the one hand, he borrows so liberally from Martin Scorsese’s 1985 feature After Hours that that film’s star, Griffin Dunne, plays a prominent role. On the other, the film’s frenetic yet wandering plot feels directly pulled from the work of the Safdie brothers, particularly Good Time (2017). So if you enjoy what Aronofsky is borrowing from, you’ll find plenty to enjoy about Caught Stealing, but don’t expect it to be top-tier Aronofsky.

Hank Thompson (Austin Butler) is a washed-up thirtysomething bartender who spends his days drinking when he isn’t having flashbacks of the devastating car crash that ended up his baseball career. When his neighbor Russ (Matt Smith) tasks Hank with watching his cat for a few days, Hank reluctantly agrees. But he soon discovers Russ is into something dangerous with a group of shady characters, and Hank’s life is now in danger.

Aronofsky’s inspirations might be the work of Scorsese and the Safdies but Caught Stealing lacks that sense of propulsion that yanks the characters from A to B. Or that doesn’t start right away. The first half of Caught Stealing is rambling bit of setup. Butler’s Hank spends his nights working at a bar and his days drinking. He occasionally spends time/sleeps with his ill-defined ex-girlfriend/fuck buddy Yvonne (Zoe Kravitz) and is content to coast through life in a beer-infused haze. The movie reinforces this sense of aimlessness even after Russ, with his ‘80s punk look living in 2008 NYC, arrives and demands Hank watch Bud, his utterly darling cat. From there we see Hank attempt to avoid responsibility for the Bud, until he can’t any longer.

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It isn’t until all the bad guys converge, at least 30 minutes in the movie, that Caught Stealing finds its feet and starts to move, and once it does it becomes a capable little crime thriller. Hank’s world is rife with colorful murderers, all of whom are defined by a kooky character trait, from a Russian goon who loves crawling on the floor and head butting people to Hasidic Jewish assassins, played by Vincent D’Onofrio and Liev Schreiber. Mostly, these characters are there to scare Hank from going to various places in the city, ranging from a trip to the assassin’s Bubbe’s house in Brighton Beach, delightfully played by Carol Kane, through the various NYC subway systems.

Caught Stealing proves Butler can carry a movie on his own because even when it seems like that first half of the movie goes nowhere Butler keeps you engaged. His Hank is a charming guy, whether he’s trying to convince Yvonne he’s changed or he’s singing Meredith Brooks’s “Bitch” drunkenly on a pool table. Much of his malaise is motivated by a horrific car crash he caused, that killed his best friend and ruined his ability to play baseball for the San Francisco Giants. Butler holds all the regret and fear behind an easy smile. He also has a deep well of sensitivity, particularly in the scenes opposite the darling Tonic, the cat. One could say their relationship is the perfect “enemies to lovers” story wherein Hank initially hates the cat only to see him as an ally or a child. This does leave Hank’s actual lover, Kravitz, to be little more than the girl repeatedly asking him “What’s wrong” before making an abrupt exit from the narrative entirely.

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As Regina King’s character, Detective Roman, explains, this is about money so the plot doesn’t have any great stakes and really acts as a means of allowing Hank to find redemption for his past. The plot becomes formulaic, though never boring, as the audience understands exactly where Hank is gonna end up. Though because of that that means there are moments of humor, particularly once Smith’s Russ returns to the chaos that’s unfolded.

Caught Stealing certainly doesn’t feel like an Aronofsky movie, and that generic sensibility will affect your mileage on it. It does give Butler a great opportunity to prove his worth as a leading man.

Grade: C-

Caught Stealing is in theaters Friday.

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