Caught Stealing is the sleeper in Darren Aronofsky's output, and it includes Austin Butler's best career performance in this exhilarating 1998 NYC narrative.
If you checked the box office rankings in August 2025, you might have thought Caught Stealing was a bomb. It came, it saw, it didn’t come close to recouping even a quarter of its budget. That’s a flop in the cold calculations of Hollywood. But if you dig movies that actually mean something, you already know that box office numbers are never an indicator of quality.
Caught Stealing is a terrific film that was just released at the wrong time. It is a gritty, sweaty, adrenaline-charged tour of 1998 New York City, and it may be the most fun film Aronofsky has ever made. So as it finally comes to streaming, here’s hoping this misunderstood classic can find a wider audience.
Darren Aronofsky is generally known for his brutal misery. From the drug-fueled nightmares of Requiem for a Dream to the pornographic claustrophobia of The Whale, his movies are usually predicated on a formula of obsession triggering madness. You respect his films, but you don’t always “enjoy” them.
Stealing Caught steals the script and flips the script sideways. It’s Aronofsky loosening his tie. He brings his trademark intensity to a crime thriller that seems like a mash-up of Coen Brothers capers and a 90’s action flick. He’s no longer “wallowing” in his character’s pain; he’s feeling the chaos, literally. The upshot is a movie whose balance of excruciating suspense and farcical comedy achieves a tone that’s idiosyncratically, strangely electric.
Forget the hip-swivel of Elvis and the bald menace of Dune. According to Screenrant, In Caught Stealing, Austin Butler completely reinvents his physical presence. He plays Hank Thompson, a washed-up baseball prodigy turned alcoholic bartender.
To promote the part, Butler had to abandon the dehydrated “superhero abs” look for what the production termed the “Baseball Body.” He bulked up with 35 pounds to resemble a ‘90s power hitter — big, heavy and utilitarian. When Hank fights, he does not do karate but he draws on centrifugal force, wielding mundane objects like a bat, looking like a dashing person with the body mass of a football player. It’s a grounded, sweaty turn that brings gravity to the movie. You buy that he’s a guy who’s given up on life, which is what makes it so interesting when he has to fight for it.
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One of the film’s smartest moves is its setting. By placing the action in 1998, Aronofsky removes the safety net of modern technology. There are no smartphones to GPS a getaway route. There is no cloud to upload evidence to. Hank is alone in the Lower East Side with nothing but payphones, paper maps, and his wits.
This “analog anxiety” imparts a breathless, hands-on energy to the film that so many modern thrillers are missing. It’s a “run and gun” movie powered by a pounding post-punk score that will make your heart race. The camerawork captures the filth of a non-gentrified New York, a city of dilapidated infrastructure and menacing shadows.
The story is straight-up noir, Hank is just an ordinary guy who winds up in the criminal underbelly simply because he agreed to watch his neighbor’s cat. That’s it. That’s the catalyst.
Suddenly he’s being chased by Russian mobsters, a terrifying corrupt cop (Regina King), and a wild card enforcer (Bad Bunny). It’s a “bureaucratic nightmare” of violence in which everyone believes Hank has the MacGuffin, and no one thinks he’s innocent.
With an 84% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the critics have already determined what the general movie-going audience failed to see in theaters. Caught Stealing isn’t just a movie, it’s a mood. It’s a throwback to an era when action films had texture, when heroes were humble folk enduring a genuinely awful day, and survival wasn’t about saving the world — it was just about making it to the next morning.
Caught Stealing is the sort of movie that sneaks up on you – sharp, frenetic, bruised in both tone and spirit, and infused with a style we had no idea Aronofsky was capable of. It may have been a box office flop, but it’s a matter of time. With its gritty ‘98 vibe, an amazing career-best performance from Austin Butler, and a tone that is at once both panicked and infuriatingly funny, this movie is going to find a cult audience once the word gets out about what they missed in theaters. There are times when the loudest success stories aren’t the best films – but the ones that live with you the longest, after the lights come up.
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Keira Knightley leads the dark comedy THE WORST with Jamie Dornan and Alicia Vikander. Cast, plot information, release hype and more. Read more visit website!
The recently announced film The Worst is already shaping up to be one of the most interesting films this year. Variety have also confirmed that Keira Knightley, Alicia Vikander, Jamie Dornan, and Erin Kellyman will all appear in this upcoming dark comedy The Worst that is a powerhouse cast if I’ve ever seen one. It’s very rare to have such esteemed actors all come together for one project this early in a career and it says that the production is going to be something ambitious creatively.
This is not just a collection of over-exposed actors, but a group who can portray characters with layers of intensity and complexity psychologically. Combined, these actors’ collective strengths hint at a movie that will play to an emotional core and perhaps a bit of controlled chaos, right in line with the tone suggested by the genre.
If the early storyline summaries are any indication, The Worst seems primed to offer a daring, out-of-the-box cinematic ride that could potentially be one of the more distinctive films in today’s market.
There’s nothing quite as tasty as a satire of “rich people behaving badly.” From Succession to The Menu, we as a society are fascinated with watching the privileged class collapse. The Worst appears to be tailor-made to deliver that, albeit with a sun-kissed, French edge.
Here’s the scoop: the movie takes place in a beautiful new chateau in France. Alicia Vikander is Emily Fisher, a high society socialite who, after her husband Max, hosts a group of friends at night. Apparently this is one of these groups of homies who all secretly (or not so secretly) loathe each other.
Keira Knightley is taking on the role of Holly, a “struggling diversity consultant” who has conflicts with everyone until she gets a migraine. Anyone that has watched Knightley in Begin Again or the more easy-going, cheerful bits of Pride and Prejudice will know just how much comedic timing she has and yet is never fully utilised. Prejudice knows how to make use of her effortless charm while throwing out razor-sharp wit. But to see her playing an abrasive, “deliberately flawed” character is definitely going to be a treat.
And then there’s Jamie Dornan as Danny, a fast-talking talent agent who can’t stop dropping the names of his clients. If you saw Dornan in Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar, you know he’s actually a comedic genius. He’s got that charm that can so easily curdle into something hilariously insufferable, which sounds absolutely right for this role.
And who’s caught in the middle of this hurricane of narcissism? The brilliant Erin Kellyman (which if you’ve seen Willow or The Falcon and the Winter Soldier you’ll remember her) is Niamh, the waitress.
There’s something so comforting about the “average Joe stuck with insanely wealthy people” trope. Kellyman’s screen presence is so grounded and powerful; at the end of a night of collapsing secrets and madness will be the anchor this tale needs.
Simon Woods is making his directorial debut with the film. If you know that name, that’s because he was once an actor before he became a playwright. Here’s a fun fact, though: Woods and Keira Knightley were also in the 2005 Pride & Prejudice! He acted as Mr. Bingley.
It’s always interesting when actors direct because they view performance from a different angle. Woods has penned the screenplay himself, calling it a bid to “seduce audiences into identifying with characters who are intentionally flawed, abrasive and frequently enraging.”
He just wants us to be on the verge of sympathizing with these awful people before yanking the rug out from under us. It’s a daring move. It’s dangerous. And it sounds just like the kind of uncomfortable, “make-you-want-to-rip-the-armrest-off-the-seat” cinema that people end up talking about.
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Other than the cast, what sets The Worst apart is the timing. We live in a golden age of class satire. We live to pick apart privilege, particularly when it’s served up with “wickedly entertaining” humor, as the producers promise.
But it’s also a particular configuration of these actors.
That is the hard part. The project is now available to buyers at the European Film Market (EFM) in Berlin, running now. So production and release dates are still to be decided.
But for a cast this stacked, it’s almost certain to be scooped up quickly. I wouldn’t be shocked if a streaming giant or major studio is in a bidding war for the rights by the end of the week.
So we wait, for now. But let’s be real — the group chat has already been ignited. We’re already casting our predictions on who cracks first at this dinner party. My money’s on Jamie Dornan’s character Machiavellian-networking his way out of a disaster while Keira Knightley’s character silently judges him from across the room.
The Worst is not a typical film announcement, it’s more like the start of a cultural talk. With a keenly focused premise, a brazen creative vision, and a cast full of actors who excel in psychological nuance, this doesn’t seem like the run-of-the-mill dark comedy, it’s an event. Keira Knightley new dark comedy movie with Jamie Dornan is the kind of film that intelligently dissects privilege, power, and hypocrisy with humor and just enough chaos to make audiences a little uncomfortable in the best way.
If it lives up to even half of what it’s promising, The Worst won’t just entertain, it will linger. It will provoke debates, think-pieces, memes, and 4 AM conversations about characters and moral failures. And in a world flooded with safe, formulaic releases, that’s precisely what makes this film exciting: it’s allowed to be messy, provocative, and unforgettable.
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Learn how Galactus and Lady Death could reshape the MCU with a cosmic Gothic era leading to Secret Wars, redefining Marvel's future beyond traditional villains.
If you feel the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) was a bit all over the place lately, well, you’re not alone. With multiverse shenanigans, quantum realms and whatnot, things have become a bit messy. But there’s a pattern if you look at the Phase Six schedule along with Fantastic Four: First Steps and the latest spoilers in Agatha All Along. Marvel is turning its back on political thrillers and sci-fi brawls to focus on high-concept metaphysics and passion plays.
The two players at the center of this shift? Galactus, the Devourer of Worlds, and Mistress Death, now unveiled as the fierce and compelling Rio Vidal.
Casual fans might view them as two separate “Big Bads” (the first a sci-fi giant, the second a supernatural weird witch), but comic history and deep lore reports tell us they are really the “parents” of the next cosmic saga. If you want to know why their eventual encounter is going to change everything, read on!
In order to understand why this matters, we need to examine the source material. Comics-wise, particularly the legendary Fantastic Four — the relationship of Galactus and Death is described in terms that boggle the mind.
Death refers to Galactus as her “husband and father, brother and son.”
It seems like a contradiction, but it’s a statement of cosmic truth. They’re not enemies; they’re symbiotic. Galactus is the “Great Filter” of the universe. He isn’t randomly demolishing worlds because he’s malevolent; he’s doing it to tend the cosmic garden, so that life does not turn into a cancer on the face of existence.
He makes the nutrition that feeds Death’s being. In an eternal, symbiotic dance, his job is to create and hers is to eat. They form a deep, quasi-sacred union, vastly more complex and profound than Thanos’s adolescent crush on Death that can best be described as a momentary juvenile fantasy.
The MCU seems to be aiming for a particular aesthetic in this union: “Cosmic Gothic.” For one, we’ve got Ralph Ineson cast as Galactus. Known for his bone-chilling, folk horror work in The Witch, Ineson lends a weight that implies that Galactus will be more of an Old Testament god than a mechanical antagonist.
Then there’s Aubrey Plaza’s Rio Vidal. Rather than being the quiet skeleton featured in the comics, Plaza’s Death is loquacious, possessive, and chaotic. She is rooted in “Green Witch” tradition, seeing death as a natural return to the earth. When you combine Ineson’s golden, high-tech horror and Plaza’s rotting, totemic witchcraft, you end up with a cinematic mood we’ve never seen in Marvel.
So how do they come together? The latest rumors about The Fantastic Four: First Steps suggest a particular catalyst: Franklin Richards.
Galactus is arriving on Earth not for a bite but to enslave the reality-warping son of Reed and Sue Richards as a long-term power source, according to leaks. The speculation is that Sue Storm dies to stop Galactus and then that Franklin uses his god-like powers to bring her back to life.
This is where Rio Vidal enters the chat. As established in Agatha All Along, Rio hates when people cheat death. If Franklin tears a soul back from her domain, he is an enemy of nature. So you’ve got a really interesting three-way battle forming here: Galactus wants the boy for energy, Death wants the boy stopped for violating her rules, and the Fantastic Four are in the middle.
In the end, the union of Galactus and Death is what leads to Avengers: Secret Wars. As the multiverse shatters through “incursions,” the universe requires a means by which to cull expiring timelines in order to preserve others. Galactus and Death are more than villains to beat up, they’re the cosmic immune system.
We’re beyond the age when heroes battled to save a city. We are now living in a time of modern mythmaking where the basic drivers of reality, Hunger and Entropy have faces, names and story lines. When Ralph Ineson’s Galactus and Aubrey Plaza’s Death at last share the screen, it won’t just be a crossover, it will be the pulse of the new Marvel Universe.
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Lady Death and Galactus are far from just two scary forces – they are the core of what Marvel’s next cosmic era is going to be. Their clash lays the groundwork for a deeper, darker and more mythic MCU, one in which the fabric of reality bends, souls are traded, and the heroes we know go toe-to-toe with adversaries older than time itself. If Marvel honestly commits to this “Cosmic Gothic” era, the MCU could finally begin telling the ambitious, cohesive stories fans have been clamoring for.
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