All shook up again

OSCAR-NOMINATED writer-director Darren Aronofsky struts defiantly on the wrong side of the law in a bruising crime yarn set in 1998 New York.

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Adapted by Charlie Huston from his novel, Caught Stealing engineers a frenetic chase through the mean streets of a city in Mayor Giuliani's iron-fisted grasp, where a law banning dancing in bars without a licence steadily flatlines nightlife.

Austin Butler is more shook up than in his star-making turn in Elvis as a down-on-his-luck bartender who loses a kidney after being battered by thugs.

Aronofsky stages the bone-crunching fisticuffs and slow-motion car crashes with elan and cinematographer Matthew Libatique brings dynamism to each grimly compelling set-piece.