Caught Stealing (dir. Darren Aronofsky)

by Jack Martin | Aug 29, 2025

Certificate: 15

Running Time: 107 mins

UK Distributor: Sony Pictures

UK Release Date: 29 August 2025

WHO’S IN CAUGHT STEALING?

Austin Butler, Regina King, Zoë Kravitz, Matt Smith, Liev Schreiber, Vincent D’Onofrio, Griffin Dunne, Bad Bunny, Carol Kane, Tenoch Huerta, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Will Brill, Action Bronson, George Abud, Yuri Kolokolnikov, Georgia Piña Clark

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Darren Aronofsky (director, producer), Charlie Huston (writer), Jeremy Dawson, Dylan Golden and Ari Handel (producers), Rob Simonsen (composer), Matthew Libatique (cinematographer), Andrew Weisblum (editor)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

In 90s New York, a former baseball player (Butler) is drawn into a madcap conspiracy…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON CAUGHT STEALING?

Once upon a time, Darren Aronofsky was attached to direct a remake of RoboCop. For numerous reasons, that didn’t work out – though God forbid we go our lives without that Joel Kinnaman-fronted disaster instead – but even if it did, it would have marked a significantly different direction for the filmmaker, known for more provocative and intimate movies like Requiem for a Dream and The Wrestler rather than the kind of fast-paced and wacky action romp that his version might have been.

While the world will never see Aronofsky’s take on the Paul Verhoeven classic, his adaptation of Charlie Huston’s novel Caught Stealing – written for the screen by Huston himself – offers hints of what it might have at the very least felt like. And if it had turned out to be as fierce, grimy and firing-on-all-cylinders enjoyable as this, then someone high up in the studio system really screwed up when they denied him the resources to fulfil his vision on that particular property.

Set in 1998 on the Lower East Side of New York, we follow Hank (Austin Butler), a young bartender haunted by a tragic accident that killed his best friend and ended his promising baseball career, though his budding relationship with paramedic Yvonne (Zoë Kravitz) just about keeps him in check. One day, he’s unexpectedly left to look after the cat of his punk-rock neighbour Russ (Matt Smith) while he flies home to London. A simple and harmless task, until various thugs begin to show up looking for Russ and decide to take their violent frustrations out on the innocent Hank, whose situation only goes from bad to worse as he deals with sadistic gangsters, corrupt cops, and a deadly pair of Hasidic brothers (Liev Schreiber and Vincent D’Onofrio) whilst trying to figure out exactly what they want from Russ, and how he can escape with his life intact.

This really is Aronofsky having the most fun he’s probably ever had making a movie, as the director eschews his usual bummer ingredients (but still very much retains the grimness) and leans into the madcap thrills of Huston’s narrative with a bouncy energy that you never thought the guy who made The Whale could be capable of. You’ve got car chases, nightclub shoot-outs, slow-motion crashes, and a shotgun-wielding Griffin Dunne (surely one of many nods to Martin Scorsese’s After Hours, a clear inspiration for this film) all impressively executed by a filmmaker – with regular cinematographer Matthew Libatique providing crisp throwback imagery of the late-90s atmosphere – who may not have previously directed a straightforward action movie, but sure as hell gives the impression that he could do it in his sleep by this point. He also doesn’t skimp on how brutal the violence can be, to where you’re genuinely wincing whenever certain characters are beaten up so bad that they end up losing vital organs, and others that you expect to stick around for a little while longer are suddenly, and rather shockingly, removed from the equation that is life.

Aronofsky paces the film near-perfectly, spending just the right amount of time on these characters, the increasingly panicked situations they find themselves in, and various corners of this grungy criminal world to make them all feel lived-in and well-rounded. It’s the kind of film where you almost want to see spin-offs focusing on certain individuals and their own backstories, because what little that Aronofsky and Huston give the audience here about each and every supporting character are mere seeds of something that could sprout into its own standalone feature that would work just as well as Caught Stealing does.

Few, though, would probably have as much charisma and intrigue that Austin Butler inhabits in the lead role, with the actor excelling at making Hank the kind of protagonist who’s in way over his head but is still competent when (literally) tied up, and able to think on his feet when placed in genuine danger. It’s a very physical performance, as Butler endures so much bodily harm that you can practically feel his deeper wounds whenever he’s forced to run for his life, but also one filled with legitimate depth as he deals with his own demons while trying to maintain a grounded lifestyle. Butler has the further gift of sharing great chemistry with pretty much anyone he acts opposite, from Zoë Kravitz who brings saucy compassion in a few steamy scenes, to Matt Smith in an amusingly against-type role as this mohawked bohemian with a charred Margaret Thatcher bobblehead on the hood of his car, just two examples of a colourful ensemble that Butler proudly and confidently leads.

Any setbacks are minor, like one or two exposition dumps that attempt to explain what’s going on, though they’re quickly followed up by some more intense action and Butler being his adorable self. Other than that, I kind of loved Caught Stealing, a movie that entertained me from beginning to end and gave me nearly everything I want to see out of a movie like this, from compelling and interesting characters to brutal violence interspersed with impressive action throughout an endlessly engaging story. I’m not even kidding when I say that this may well be Aronofsky’s best film since Black Swan, for not since then have the director’s best qualities shone so brightly within a narrative that allows him to be as creative in his craft as he can.

Again, whoever denied this guy the right to make his version of RoboCop seriously messed up.

SO, TO SUM UP…

Caught Stealing is one of the year’s most entertaining thrillers, thanks to Darren Aronofsky’s lively direction that elevates Charlie Huston’s grimy source material and brings to life an eclectic ensemble of characters led by a charismatic Austin Butler.