Darren Aronofsky’s Caught Stealing sees the typically pretentious auteur shift gears toward fun and violence in late 1990s NYC. It’s a throwback to gritty 1970s filmmaking but set in the Giuliani era — the perfect setting for our downwardly mobile 2025.

As far as I can judge, the primary complaint about Darren Aronofsky’s generally well-reviewed — though not very popular — new film, Caught Stealing, is that it’s not a typical Darren Aronofsky film.

But that’s exactly what I liked about it. I’ve been a nonfan of Aronofsky’s since Pi put him on the map back in 1998. It’s good to discover so late in the game that Aronofsky can tackle a nice lowdown genre movie and pull it off with a certain élan.

With a script by Charlie Huston adapted from his own novel Caught Stealing is a darkly comic c

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