Austin Butler Struggles to Find His Role in Caught Stealing

Austin Butler, known for playing aloof characters in films like *Elvis* and *Dune: Part Two*, faces a challenging role in Darren Aronofsky’s *Caught Stealing*. In this ’90s-set crime comedy, Butler portrays Hank Thompson, a former baseball prodigy who failed to go pro and now drowns his regrets in alcohol. The film, based on Charlie Huston’s novel, mixes gritty noir with character study, but struggles with its tone and pacing. Butler’s performance as the disillusioned Hank, whose past trauma prevents him from connecting with the world around him, feels miscast, with the actor not convincing as a person trapped by his past. Despite this, the film’s surrounding characters, like Zoë Kravitz’s sultry paramedic Yvonne and a colorful cast of criminals and eccentrics, are more engaging. The film’s setting in 1998 New York is rich and atmospheric, but it ultimately falters by focusing too much on Hank and not enough on the film’s more interesting side characters. While *Caught Stealing* has moments of humor and tension, it never fully delivers on its potential.