Austin Butler Stars in Aronofsky's Caught Stealing, Aug 29, 2025

Austin Butler headlines Darren Aronofsky's Caught Stealing, a late 1990s New York crime thriller that opened in U.S. theaters on August 29, 2025 and has drawn strong early reviews. The film, adapted and scripted by Charlie Huston from his novel, follows Butler as Hank Thompson, a burned out former baseball prospect who becomes embroiled with rival gangsters after agreeing to look after his punk neighbor's cat. Critics have praised Butler's performance and the film's kinetic energy even as they debate its tonal shifts.

Caught Stealing reunites Aronofsky with a starry supporting cast that includes Zoë Kravitz, Regina King, Matt Smith, Liev Schreiber, Vincent D'Onofrio and Bad Bunny. Review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes listed the film as Certified Fresh with an 84 percent rating based on 64 critics, while other early tallies placed it in the mid 80s. Positive notices have called it one of Aronofsky's most accessible and entertaining works in years, with James Preston Poole writing that the film is "the kind of movie that gets one excited about the power of the movies" and Linda Marric calling it "Aronofsky's best in years" in a review cited by critics.