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Director Darren Aronofsky's movies often operate in the bleak despair of his characters' lives. From the drug addicted protagonists of "Requiem for a Dream" to the psychological breakdown in the pursuit of perfection in "Black Swan," Aronofsky is known for putting his characters - and actors - through the ringer to achieve his artistic vision. His new film "Caught Stealing" is no different, but it finds the filmmaker working in a slightly different tone.

Hank Thompson (Austin Butler) might not be unraveling to put on the perfect show, but the movie doesn't take it easy on the character. He is an ex-high school baseball star who had to give up any higher professional aspirations after an accident. Now, he works in late-90s Manhattan as a bartender, where he drinks as much as he serves. He is casually seeing Yvonne (Zoe Kravitz), who works as a paramedic and can usually visit Hank after his bar shifts.

One night, Hank and Yvonne are stopped by Hank's neighbor Russ (Matt Smith), who asks him to look after his cat Buddy while he flies home to England to see his ailing father. Hank obliges, but little does he know that such a simple neighborly gesture, brokered in a cramped Manhattan apartment building hallway, will turn his life upside down. Russ is tied up with some bad people - from Russian mobsters to Hasidic "monsters" (played by Liev Schreiber and Vincent D'Onofrio), as Detective Roman (Regina King) refers to them as - and they quickly become Hank's problem. They don't care who he is, they just know Russ is in possession of millions of dollars that they want to get their hands on by any means necessary.

"Caught Stealing" is a thrilling, tense, and occasionally tough movie, where Butler's character is forced to flee on foot through Manhattan in the hopes of not being brutalized around every corner by those seeking the money. There are genuine moments throughout the film that are so stressful, your body may naturally contort in its theater seat. Even so, "Caught Stealing" might be Aronofsky's most light-hearted movie to date. Coming after the relentlessly dour "The Whale" in 2022, "Caught Stealing," for all its beatings and bruises, is a fun time at the movies.

Butler has been acting since he was a teenager, but broke out in a major way in 2022 with his Oscar-nominated turn in "Elvis" (Butler likely came close to winning, but ironically lost to Brendan Fraser for "The Whale"). Butler was good as Elvis, but the biopic performances that often catch the eye of voting bodies have certain limitations for actors. There's so much pressure to get the look and sound of a known person that actors sometimes are unable to find their own way into the essence of the character. "Caught Stealing" allows Butler to exhibit a range of emotions by portraying just some everyday guy living in New York City. His performance is so strong that Butler is more believable as the fictional Hank Thompson than he was as the real and well-documented Elvis.

There's a sense of place and nostalgia running through "Caught Stealing," thanks to its 1998 setting, but as a movie being released only into theaters and not onto streaming, "Caught Stealing" feels like a bit of a throwback. Its gritty, run-all-night tone and atmosphere gives the movie a 1970s quality that reigned supreme once upon a time at the multiplexes. "Caught Stealing" is a stressful movie worth experiencing in a dark movie theater.