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.

Adapted from Charlie Huston’s cult novel, Caught Stealing is Aronofsky’s idea of a “popcorn film.” And, in true Aronofsky fashion, this popcorn comes drenched in gasoline and lit on fire. Working closely with Huston, who adapted his own novel for the screen, Aronofsky crafts a piece of cinema that is equal parts dark comedy, crime thriller, and punk odyssey. At the center of the chaos is Hank Thompson (Austin Butler), a former minor league baseball player turned washed-up bartender. Hank’s life is already circling the drain, but a case of mistaken identity sends him headfirst into a whirlwind of mobsters, drug runners, crooked cops, and sheer mayhem.

Set against the backdrop of 1998 New York City, Caught Stealing revels in its gritty period detail. Gone are smartphones, Wi-Fi, and Instagram feeds, instead, Aronofsky immerses audiences in raucous dive bars, cramped apartments, smoky pool halls, and the dangerous underbelly of a city teetering on the edge of the millennium. It’s nostalgic, yes, but also ferociously alive, a world built for chaos. The energy is relentless, and the film moves with a breakneck pace that keeps you teetering on the edge of your seat.

Aronofsky’s direction is nothing short of exhilarating. He bends genres until they snap, swinging from nail-biting tension to laugh-out-loud absurdity in the blink of an eye. One minute you’re gripping the armrest during a violent standoff, the next you’re cackling at the sheer audacity of a character’s choices. It’s cinematic whiplash in the best possible way.

The director also leans into the anarchic energy of New York, particularly Coney Island, painting the city with a vibrant, dangerous glow. Every frame hums with kinetic life, and Aronofsky’s signature visual flourishes, sharp cuts, surreal touches, and dreamlike moments of wanton chaos are all on display. It’s outrageous, unpredictable, and utterly alive.

At the centre of this whirlwind is Austin Butler, whose performance as Hank Thompson cements him as one of the defining actors of his generation. Butler has already proven his talent in Elvis, The Bikeriders, and Dune: Part Two, but here he lets loose in a whole new way.

On the surface, Hank is pure sex appeal: a shredded six-pack, bad-boy swagger, and natural charisma that makes him magnetic on screen. But Butler digs deeper, peeling back Hank’s bravado to reveal a fractured man haunted by past regrets and broken dreams. He’s a lover, a fighter, a son, a screw-up; and Butler embodies every contradiction with sincerity and depth. His Hank is the kind of character you can’t look away from, even as the world around him spirals into chaos.

Backing Butler is a killer supporting ensemble that turns Caught Stealing into a feast of memorable performances. Zoë Kravitz radiates charm and danger as Hank’s girlfriend Yvonne, a femme fatale who knows exactly how to push his buttons. Regina King steals scenes as Detective Elise Roman, a cop with secrets of her own and a moral compass that spins wildly out of control.

Matt Smith goes gloriously unhinged as Russ, a punk-rock drug runner whose manic energy makes him both hilarious and terrifying. Then there’s the powerhouse duo of Liev Schreiber and Vincent D’Onofrio as Hasidic gangster brothers Lipa and Shmully Drucker. Every time they appear on screen, they bring an unpredictable menace that ratchets the tension to boiling point. This is a cast firing on all cylinders, and their collective energy makes the film sing.

What makes Caught Stealing so thrilling is its willingness to embrace chaos. Aronofsky doesn’t just flirt with extremes; he dives headfirst into them. The film is loaded with shocking moments that will leave audiences reeling, from brutal bursts of violence to surreal comedic beats that explode out of nowhere. It’s violent, it’s messy, it’s outrageous, and it’s exactly the kind of jolt that modern cinema needs.

The film’s third act, in particular, is a wild ride. As Hank’s life spins further out of control, the film explodes into a crescendo of blood, bullets, baseball bats to the skull, and brutal double-crosses. By the time the credits roll, you’ll feel like you’ve run a marathon and loved every minute of it.

Caught Stealing is Darren Aronofsky at his most unhinged, and it’s a hell of a good time. Equal parts crime thriller, black comedy, and punk opera, it’s a film that refuses to play safe and instead drenches audiences in chaos, blood, and adrenaline. Austin Butler is magnetic at its centre, delivering a career-defining performance, while the supporting cast brings wild, unpredictable energy to every frame.

This is cinema that sweats, bleeds, and swaggers. It’s raw, it’s messy, it’s alive, and it kicks serious ass!

Image: Sony Pictures

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Darren Aronofsky is a singular auteur force in modern cinema, and every time he returns to the big screen with another project, it’s a celebration of just how far the medium can be pushed. Now, he’s enlisting rising Hollywood star Austin Butler to lead his all-out punk rock, balls-to-the-wall rush of crime caper cinema in Caught Stealing. And this is going to be a wild, bat-shit crazy experience for cinemas.

Watch the all-new trailer for Caught Stealing below:

Here’s the official synopsis:

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…

Adapted from the classic novel by author Charlie Huston, who also serves as the film’s screenwriter, Aronofsky winds back the clock for this one, taking audiences to the rough and tumble streets of New York circa 1999. Before internet, before cell phones, before CCTV, this was the last glorious crime for criminals to run wild with a measure of creativity and impunity, and Butler’s washed ip baseball player Hank Thompson gets caught up in all of it, as he becomaes a pawn in hid punk rock neighbour Russ (Matt Smith) plan to rip off a set of warring New York crime players. But Hank ain’t having at, and this leads to a crazy game of whack-a-mole with all sorts of gun battles, car chases, and ruckus…. and it’s gonna be wild.

Watching this trailer, you can feel how Aronofsky is bringing a real pre-2000 vibe energy to the picture. It’s like he’s going for broke in his wish to portray this time and place in his own voice, and he’s nailed every part of it. Caught Stealing is brash, sexy, volatile, and in-your-face, and it’s really going to crank audiences up.

Rising Hollywood star Austin Butler also owns the screen with his performance as Hank Thompson, a once-talented baseball phenom turned average joe, who gets pulled into a hell of a melee, and it’s again a different side to Butler’s incredible acting range that is brought out in this picture. It’s also clear that all the girlies are gonna line up for this one as Butler oozes bad-boy heartthrob sex appeal, and Aronofsky has worked to give this picture a real erotic energy in part.

The supporting cast is epic, Regina King, Zoë Kravitz, Liev Schreiber, Vincent D’Onofrio, Benito A Martínez Ocasio and Matt Smith provide a key level of support within the picture, and it’s clear that this is a real ensemble piece. All of them buy into the pulsating energy that Aronofsky brings to the picture, and help to make this a real love letter to New York City and its atmosphere as the city that never sleeps!

Caught Stealing is shaping up to be a wild rush of the cinema going expeirnece and you’re not going to wsnt to miss out on this one when it arrives in cinemas on August 28.

Image: Sony Pictures

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During his second year of fighting crime, Batman pursues the Riddler, a serial killer who targets elite Gotham City citizens. He uncovers corruption that connects to his own family during the investigation and is forced to make new allies to catch the Riddler and bring the corrupt to justice.

When it comes to iconic pop-culture heroes there is one who stands above all the rest. A dark crusader of the night’s skies who strikes fear into the souls of the criminals that prowl the streets beneath him, Batman is one of the most beloved, cherished and impactful superheroes ever to be created and his story and fight for justice continues to resonate with audiences. Created in 1939 by Bob Kane and Bill Finger, Batman’s unique character, story, Rogues Gallery, gadgets and straight-up badassery continues to make an impact on audiences the world over and every time he returns to the big screen it’s a time for much excitement and intrigue. For any filmmaker, the promise of finding a new way into the Batman mythos can be a daunting challenge but rest assured because the visually gifted Matt Reeves is here to bring you a Batman that you have longed dreamed of seeing on screen and The Batman is an utter masterwork to behold.

As a filmmaker, Reeves finds a new way into the Batman mythos by taking a radically different approach to the narrative and worldbuilding of The Batman, and this is a Batman film unlike any you’ve seen before. By-passing the standard origin tale, Reeves’ The Batman is a ‘Year Two’ story and this is its point-of-difference. Neither a beginning crime fighter, nor an established veteran, this Batman is a bold and brutal nighttime vigilante who has had an effect on the scum of Gotham City, but who is still continuing to find his feet as he confronts the Gotham underworld. This ‘Year Two’ narrative is blended with the lived-in, hyper-realism style that Reeves fosters not only in the character and actions of Robert Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne/Batman but also in the landscape and existence of Gotham City and its inhabitants. Shot through the lens of film noir, Reeves’s The Batman presents a murky, grungey, crowded, rain-soaked and corrupt Gotham City that is on its last legs, where citizens live in constant fear and which is in dire need of a saviour and protector. This is where Reeves sets his story and he certainly works his magic.

Reeves’s approach to The Batman leads him into the realm of film noir and detective fiction and the resulting picture speaks for itself on-screen. With cinematographer Greig Fraser, production designer James Chinlund, art director Grant Armstrong, costumers Jacqueline Durran, Dave Crossman and Glyn Dillon and hair and make-up artist Mike Marino, Reeves crafts The Batman into an incredibly unique vision. Looking to influences such as The Godfather, Chinatown and Se7en, Reeves builds out a dark, brooding detective-noir narrative and his attention to detail will have you wide-eyed with excitement. He also finds the right balance between the practical and the fantastical and his portrait of Batman and Gotham City is the stuff that long time fans could only dream of. Greig Fraser’s dark-shadowed, almost sepia-like imagery also adds to the effect and impact of the story and the result is a murky, dark portrait that moves between scintillating glamour and nightmarish horror at the same time.

Donning the cape and cowl is Bristish thespian Robert Pattinson and this young actor makes for an incredibly impressive Batman. Seeking a new angle, Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne/Batman is not the glamourous playboy and stalwart avenger of Gotham City, but instead, a haunted insomniac and wrathful creature of the night possessed by an obsession that borders on the sheer edge of madness as he wages his one-man war on crime from the shadows and takes back the city of Gotham one block at a time. Part of what makes Pattinson’s portrayal of Bruce Wayne/Batman so intriguing is that Reeves takes us into the character’s internal monologue, and for the first time we get to hear his inner thoughts as he narrates the actions and consequences of his quest for vengeance. This is a massive point of difference in the portrayal of the Batman character from what we’ve seen before and Pattinson digs deep and transforms himself into this obsessive loner whose fight for the city of Gotham, and need for vengeance is becoming all-consuming.

Pattinson, under Reeves’s direction, also keenly plays up Batman’s role as the ‘world’s greatest detective’ and much of the story follows his investigation into the actions of the brutal serial killer called The Riddler. We see Pattinson’s Batman working the case, and employing his unique mind, technology and inquisitive detective skills to piece together a growing and dangerous conspiracy. And it’s fascinating to watch. Of interest for audiences in this portrayal is that Pattinson throws himself into the form of Batman over that of Bruce Wayne and this has a seriously dramatic effect on the narrative. What this shows is a character who lives in his shadow persona, forsaking the person who lives in the light and it’s a point-of-difference from other portrayals. Themes of identity and history factor into Pattinson’s performance and long time fans will be very happy with how Pattinson’s interpretation of Bruce Wayne/Batman plays into the grand mythos of the character and the connections to the Wayne family, Arkham Asylum and other core tenants of the Batman story.

Pattinson’s Batman isn’t just a mere detective either and we get to see him let his physical side out as Batman, and when he’s encased in his armour and takes to the night’s skies looking for a fight, he transforms into an utter monster. Favouring a bone-breaking, smash-bash, street fighting style that focuses more on effective brutality than flamboyant style, Pattinson’s Batman goes to work on the streets of Gotham and he’s a particularly dangerous creature to cross. There’s nothing pretty about the combat here. It’s brutal, nasty, violent, and directly to the point. In short, it’s real. Pattinson’s Batman isn’t flashy or showy, he’s not fighting to impress, he’s fighting to win and to cause as much terror to his combatants as possible. The film’s fight scenes are bone-snapping in their presentation and Pattinson proves that he has a real talent for action cinema as he jumps headfirst into the fray. Special note is also made to Pattinson’s Batman being very much a human figure. He’s not immune to pain or getting smashed up and he certainly takes a few punches. But he sure does throw them back a hell of a lot harder.

While Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne/Batman may serve as the film’s primary protagonist, Reeves also introduces audiences to a fresh-faced and edgy young woman named Selina Kyle, played with extraordinary grace and red-hot sex appeal by Zoë Kravitz, and she’s a femme fatale in the making. As a young woman who is entrenched in Gotham City’s criminal underworld, and who possesses her own unique skills and is nursing a need for vengeance, Kravitz brings a fire and energy to a Catwoman for a new generation and she’s a great partner for Pattinson’s Batman on screen. Where Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne/Batman carries a real masculine edge, Kravitz’s Selina Kyle brings her own feminine power to bear and there’s is a great ying/yang confrontation throughout The Batman’s narrative. Kravitz has incredible sex appeal as Kyle and holds the attention of the screen, and this girl can seriously throw a kick and her presence takes the action and intrigue of The Batman to a new level.

Batman’s mythology is filled with a list of dangerous members of the Rogues Gallery and Matt Reeves reinvents many of them in this, his new telling of the Batman story. The film’s central villain is The Riddler, played by an unhinged and skittishly psychopathic Paul Dano, who is re-introduced to audiences as a calculating and vicious serial killer who is willing to burn Gotham City to the ground. The Riddler engages Batman in a chilling game of cat and mouse and Dano commits fully to this terrifying character, and his presence and actions are sure to unnerve audiences as he attacks Gotham’s elite with a twisted zeal in his quest for ‘justice’. This new portrait of The Riddler marks out The Batman from any other Batman film and Reeves creativity and quest to push the envelope shows through in this character and his appearance is sure to send a chill down your spine.

While The Riddler serves as the film’s primary antagonist, Reeves also builds out the Rogues Gallery, and the underworld of Gotham City, with several other key villains including money-minded gangster Oswald ‘Oz’ Cobblepot (Colin Farrell) and mafia don Carmine Falcone (John Turturro). Both Farrell and Turturro make dramatic changes as they morph into their respective characters, and they bring a grand gangster presence that is key to The Batman’s success. Like Pattinson’s Batman, we are only in the early stages of seeing these characters come to life and this is clear when it comes to Farrell’s Cobblepot. Not yet a crime-lord of Gotham, but rather an ambitious mob lieutenant with expensive tastes, Farrell’s Cobblepot is a scarred and disfigured thug who is mockingly referred to as ‘The Penguin’ by those around him, and who is only beginning to make his mark on Gotham. But the mark will be made.

As a cinematic experience, The Batman is a film that gripped me from beginning to end and I found myself completely enamoured by the narrative that Matt Reeves brought to the big screen. Of particular enjoyment was watching Reeves and Pattinson exploring the internal side to Batman and seeing Batman’s internal monologue brought before us in the film’s gripping opening scenes. This introduction to the character and the establishment of a new Gotham City was one of the most exciting and electrifying parts of the entire film that I witnessed and I felt in these moments like this was the Batman film I had been longing for my entire life. Set against the moody music and vocals of Nirvana’s ‘Something in the Way’, this opening scene and narration set the atmosphere for the noir-laced epic that we were to witness and it was a hell of a new introduction for such a legendary character.

Alongside this exploration of the internal workings of Bruce Wayne/Batman’s mind and interior monologue another of my favourite parts of The Batman was the presence of an all-new Batmobile. And this is one grunty metal beast. Seeking something new, Reeves and his team turned to the classic American muscle car stylings of a 1970 Plymouth Barracuda to mould their Dark Knight’s chariot from and it’s a pure demonic presence on screen. This Batmobile screams power, ferocity, speed and intimidation and watching Pattinson let loose in it made for one hell of a rush! Reeves again pushes for reality with his film’s signature car chase and there’s nothing pretty about it as Pattinson’s Batman charges after Farrell’s Cobblepot. With its brutalism design aesthetic and sheer engine ferocity, this Batmobile is built to do one and thing, and one thing only: run the bad guys off the road. And that’s exactly what it does. Throw in Michael Giacchino’s adrenaline charging score and you’ve got a seriously badass car chase.

The success of The Batman as a cinematic experience goes back to its director’s desire to stay true to the source material and to present a film-noir detective tale that is rich in detail and epic in scale. Reeves truly builds a living breathing Gotham City and there’s so much to take in with The Batman. It’s a film that is contemporary and practical, but also stylistic and fantastical. It tells a complete story from beginning to end and resurrects a beloved hero and his frightening rogues, along with teasing the appearance of the mania and chaos that could soon sweep the streets of Gotham City and which awaits laughing in the shadows. The Batman is a film that is truly made for the fans and audiences who are seeking a definitive Batman story will be very pleased with what Matt Reeves brings to the big screen with this dark and brooding narrative.

Characters don’t get more heroic or inspiring than Batman and that’s exactly what Matt Reeves has given us in The Batman. Richly detailed, exciting to watch and getting to the very soul of the Dark Knight, The Batman is an utter masterwork to behold and audiences will be clenching their seats from an outpouring of adrenaline as they witness this piece of cinema unfold before their eyes. Movies simply don’t get any better than this.

Image: Warner Brothers Pictures

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Following on from the release of tracks for individual scores for The Batman and The Riddler we now have the debut of Michael Giacchino’s new title track for Zoe Kravitz’s Selina Kyle/Catwomen. Check it out below:

Featuring a romantic, sultry and noir piano style, this new track is quintessential of 1930s and 1940s film noir and has a very femme fatale edge to it. There’s a romantic styling to it, along with a certain sadness and tragedy that also goes with the character of Selina Kylie and you can feel the pull of a romantic pulse that is sure to be explored further between her and Robert Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne/The Batman.

With all of these themes, we’ve got a terrific sense of where The Batman is heading and the thematic quality that Michael Giacchino’s score implies and the importance that it will bring in helping Matt Reeves to realise his complete and totally new vision for the film.

Here’s the official synopsis for The Batman:

During his second year of fighting crime, Batman pursues the Riddler, a serial killer who targets elite Gotham City citizens. He uncovers corruption that connects to his own family during the investigation, and is forced to make new allies to catch the Riddler and bring the corrupt to justice.

Brace yourself for an epic blockbuster cinema experience when The Batman arrives in cinemas on March 3.

Image: Warner Brothers Pictures

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Check out the brand new trailer NOW:

Here’s the official synopsis:

During his second year of fighting crime, Batman pursues the Riddler, a serial killer who targets elite Gotham City citizens. He uncovers corruption that connects to his own family during the investigation, and is forced to make new allies to catch the Riddler and bring the corrupt to justice.

This new trailer is entirely EPIC and gives audiences a terrific new insight into the story of The Batman. and we are presented with an extremely haunted Bruce Wayne courtesy of Robert Pattinson. This is a Bruce Wayne who is blindly obsessive to his nightly quest for vengeance and who seems to have lost sight of his status as a member of the Wayne family. He’s also discovering that the serial killer known as The Riddler has a bone to pick with the Wayne family, and that he’s willing to do anything to bring Gotham City to its knees.

Knowing that two against one are better odds, Pattinson’s Wayne also enlists the help of Selina Kylie; a nightclub worker and cat burglar who is guarding her own secrets and who sees something more in the Batman. There’s a great sexual tension and chemistry between Pattinson and Kravitz and this certainly plays into the action and intensity of The Batman.

This new trailer truly amps everything up and in terms of the narrative of The Batman, this is the most amount of narrative footage that we’ve seen to date. With its twisting story, The Batman is truly going to take audiences into the heart of the Dark Knight and director Matt Reeves is using this to his advantage to give Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne a true test that sees him take on the psychopathic force of The Riddler and his gang of zealot followers.

Prepare for 2022’s biggest blockbuster when The Batman arrives in cinemas on March 3, 2022.

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Watch the full trailer below:

Check out my full reaction for The Batman trailer below:

Here’s the official synopsis:

In his second year of fighting crime, Batman uncovers corruption in Gotham City that connects to his own family while facing a serial killer known as the Riddler.

Building off of an intense feeling of film noir, and heighten crime film thrills, Matt reeves’s The Batman is unlike anything we’ve ever seen before, and this edgy new story is sure to get audiences pumped with its serious narrative and a committed performance on the part of Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne/Batman.

Director Matt Reeves takes audiences into the dark underbelly of Gotham City, where the vigilante detective known as The Batman is in his second year prowling the streets of Gotham and soon has to contend not only with the scum of Gotham’s criminal mob, which includes upstart ganster Oswald Cobblepot (Colin Farrell), but also an elusive, calculating and sadistic serial killer The Riddler (Paul Dano).

Reeves’ direction marks this Batman film out as an incredibly haunting and intense cinematic experience, and in watching the trailer you feel like you’re witnessing a film that feels more like a Martin Scorsese crime film than a mere comic book superhero film. Audiences who are looking for intense action and characterization will be extremely pleased with what’s on offer here, and Pattinson brings a dark and haunting intensity to his character that borders on a maddening obsession.

In addition to Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne, audiences are also allowed a look at Zoe Kravitz’s Selina Kyle/Catwoman, an enigmatic career criminal and femme fatale who catches the eye of both Bruce Wayne and Batman, and Kravitz certainly brings a sultry feminity to the role, that makes her an equal match to Pattinson’s Batman.

The Batman has the feeling of those classic 1970s crime dramas such as Chinatown and Taxi Driver, and Reeves has focused in on the gritty nature of Gotham City and its power to motivate the unstoppable Bruce Wayne. Pattinson has also gone to town here in the role, and he transforms into a literal beast when he jumps into the fight. Those looking for some serious ground and pound action will be very pleased with how savage he is in his performance.

This is a Batman film unlike any that we’ve witnessed before and it is far and away shaping up to be my most anticipated film of 2022.

The Batman will arrive IN CINEMAS on March 3, 2022.

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