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First reactions to Darren Aronofsky’s Caught Stealing hit social media

Darren Aronofsky has come full circle in a way, with his latest film, Caught Stealing, taking place in 1998, the year his debut feature Pi came out. With the movie set for an August 29th release, the first reactions have hit social media. So how does Aronofsky’s latest stack up? Check out some of the initial reviews – including our own – below.

By and large, much praise is being heaped on lead Austin Butler, who is fresh off of Ari Aster’s Eddington. Considering Butler has been on an absolute roll and Aronofsky’s last film, The Whale, nabbed Brendan Fraser a Best Actor Oscar (beating out Butler for Elvis), Butler could be an early favorite to be nominated in the category.

#CaughtStealing is one of the best movies of the year. A propulsive thriller that reminds me of the kind of classic indie thrillers made the year this is set (1998). Austin Butler has the goods.

— JoBlo.com (@joblocom) August 15, 2025

#CaughtStealing is a shot of adrenaline. Every time I thought I knew where it was going, another sneaky (yet still plot-justified) swerve hits. I gasped. I winced. I laughed out loud. Those Chekhov’s guns brought full circle in the 3rd act? . Shoutout LES one time. @screenrant pic.twitter.com/h6T9VXTLWA

— Liam (@LiamTCrowley) August 14, 2025

I’m happy to report that Caught Stealing is great and worth being forced to watch the trailer before every fucking movie this year. Austin Butler continues to prove that he’s a star and Aronofsky is finally letting himself have some fun as a storyteller.

— Eric Vespe (@EricVespe) August 14, 2025

However, these reviews aren’t a full-on representation of the initial reactions to Caught Stealing, which is dividing audiences in a way that doesn’t indicate that it’s awful but just isn’t doing it in a way they hoped.

While it’s free of my typical allergies to Aronofsky, CAUGHT STEALING is also free of one key factor: excitement. It’s conventional and often dull for something so chaotic. Austin Butler is fantastic, though, and Schreiber, D’Onofrio, and Kane steal the show. pic.twitter.com/r8GshiGfiS

— Sean Boelman (@bigtunaonfilm) August 14, 2025

CAUGHT STEALING is very much a 72% RT movie

— Matthew Ivan (@matthewivan77) August 11, 2025

While there are still plenty of reactions still to come, Caught Stealing is faring quite nicely on Letterboxd as well, with the movie seeing more than a third of viewers ranking it at four stars as of publication.

Here is the official plot of Caught Stealing, as per Sony: “Hank Thompson (Austin Butler) was a high-school baseball phenom who can’t play anymore, but everything else is going okay. He’s got a great girl (Zoë Kravitz), tends bar at a New York dive, and his favorite team is making an underdog run at the pennant. When his punk-rock neighbor Russ (Matt Smith) asks him to take care of his cat for a few days, Hank suddenly finds himself caught in the middle of a motley crew of threatening gangsters. They all want a piece of him; the problem is he has no idea why. As Hank attempts to evade their ever-tightening grip, he’s got to use all his hustle to stay alive long enough to find out…”

In addition to Butler, Kravitz and Smith, Caught Stealing also stars Regina King, Vincent D’Onofrio, Liev Schreiber, Bad Bunny, and Griffin Dunne.

What do you make of the first reactions to Darren Aronofsky’s Caught Stealing? Will you be checking it out later this month?

The post First reactions to Darren Aronofsky’s Caught Stealing hit social media appeared first on JoBlo.

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