Some critics have praised ‘Caught Stealing’ as a sharp, twisty thriller, and it certainly does a convincing job of immersing us in its late-1990s setting – a world of payphones, pagers, and pre-smartphone grit that recalls the era when Darren Aronofsky himself first broke through with ‘Pi’.

The film’s unlikely protagonist is Hank (Austin Butler), a down-on-his-luck bartender and former baseball player whose life spirals when his neighbour (Matt Smith), a British ex-pat, drags him into trouble with Russian gangsters. Soon Hank finds himself caught between rival factions, including a group of Hasidic Jewish mobsters also chasing after the Russians. At the heart of it all is a key – its purpose uncertain, perhaps the key to some earth-shattering revelation or perhaps nothing at all, in true Aronofsky fashion.

The plot can be deliberately confusing, less about the payoff than about watching Hank stumble deeper into a nightmare he doesn’t fully understand. Butler, who only recently seemed poised for an Oscar with Elvis before losing out to Brendan Fraser in Aronofsky’s ‘The Whale’, brings a bruised charisma to the role. Hank is a man who likes to drink, and when an injury threatens to put him permanently off alcohol, he seems to shrug it off – but the film makes clear he’s unlikely to stay sober for long. Still, the character feels underdeveloped, with little in the way of a satisfying arc.

Visually, the film is caustic and grimy, a far cry from glossy portraits of New York. It has been described as a love letter to the city, though this is a version of Manhattan that reeks of sweat, smoke, and desperation. Aronofsky’s fascination with characters of squandered potential is here in full force – just as Jennifer Connelly’s character spiralled in ‘Requiem for a Dream’, Natalie Portman obsessed in ‘Black Swan’, and Mickey Rourke faded in ‘The Wrestler’. Hank is another of his wounded dreamers, clinging to scraps of hope as his world collapses around him.

There are moments of Hitchcockian mistaken identity and echoes of Scorsese’s ‘After Hours’ – in fact, Griffin Dunne, who starred in that film, appears here in a small role as a bartender faced with cops and gangsters demanding access to his safe. These allusions enrich the film but don’t quite coalesce into something greater.