A Comic, Karmic Crime Heist in the 'Pulp Fiction' Mold

In most heist dramas since Pulp Fiction, murderous criminals are comically stupid, and the lead characters are often mentally missing a beat as well, or at least they're quirky as hell.

- SCOTT GARCEAU

In most heist dramas since Pulp Fiction, murderous criminals are comically stupid, and the lead characters are often mentally missing a beat as well, or at least they're quirky as hell. It's a postmodern staple, and many more A-list action thrillers are swinging for those Pulp Fiction fences right now. Whether it's Brad Pitt in Bullet Train, Brad (again) with George Clooney in the abysmal Wolfs, Anora's dumb-as-bricks Russian mafia, P.T. Anderson's THC-incapacitated P.I. in Inherent Vice, or Shane Black's The Good Guys, it's all about that twisty, neon-soaked vibe highlighting people with dim-watt bulbs for brains.

Miss the '90s? Darren Aronofsky takes a crack at that decade's dumb-ass crime thrillers, with a smart screenplay based on Charlie Houston's novel. In Caught Stealing, we meet Hank Thompson, played by all-American Austin Butler: a guy with shattered college baseball dreams, yet living and working happily enough as a bartender in New York's Lower East Side, circa 1998, when Rudy Giuliani was experiencing the upward trajectory of his public career (the Twin Towers still appear in several background shots).