“Caught Stealing” Makes New York a Comedic Criminal Nightmare

From the start of Darren Aronofsky’s new film, “Caught Stealing,” it’s apparent that it hits the sweet spot of his cinematic artistry—the right scale, the right scope. Set in the summer of 1998, almost entirely in New York City, the movie begins in a Lower East Side bar at 4 A.M. , where the bartender, Hank Thompson (Austin Butler), is dealing with a raucous group that’s breaking an absurd law—by dancing—and reminds them that Rudolph Giuliani, the zero-tolerance mayor, is indeed enforcing it. (It was a real thing; the last of the relevant laws was repealed only last year.) The film starts small, in a tight space, but the thrum of the city—its physical energy and its mighty administrative infrastructure—gives it a tension, a sense of ambient conflict that will, soon enough, turn an ordina