He’s so omnipresent since breaking out with Elvis in 2022 that it feels like Austin Butler has been in a bunch of stuff, but he’s only been in two movies since, The Bikeriders and Dune: Part Two, and one mini-series no one watched, Masters of the Air.
His aggressive Oscar campaign felt like he might be the next Tom Hiddleston—thirsty for fame and happy to embrace it—but Butler proved the opposite: choosy and glad to drop off the face of the earth for a while. (I met Butler a couple years ago and my impression was that he is very polite and professional, and shy in a way that is incredibly charming. Also, he’s so beautiful it made me question reality for a moment.)
But it will be a Hot Austin Summer, as they say—do they say that? They should, let’s start—as he has two entire movies coming out in the next few months. First up is Ari Aster’s Eddington, which premiered at Cannes and opens in July, and then in August comes Caught Stealing, which pairs Butler with Darren Aronofsky and Zoë Kravitz. The trailer dropped yesterday and while the 90s nostalgia makes me feel old as f-ck, I dig it.
I am taken aback by how FUN this movie looks. When was the last time Darren Aronofsky was fun? He’s not a filmmaker I associate with a good time at the cinema. Talented, sure, and I often like his movies—though I hated The Whale—but I have never had fun with one of his movies. But Caught Stealing looks like a lot of fun! Maybe Darren Aronofsky is entering a new, “let’s just have a good time” phase.
Or maybe the trailer is a total misdirect. If it is, it’s a huge mistake, because this is definitely selling the audience on a good time, a good old-fashioned crime caper with a cast of colorful characters and a loose vibe that fits summer cinema. If it’s a misdirect and Caught Stealing is going to be a more typical Aronofsky misery, people will be f-cking PISSED. You can surprise an audience in the sense that they’re willing to go along with plot twists, but you cannot give them rat poison when they bought a ticket for Skittles. If you’re telling them that the adventure is Skittles-flavored, you have to deliver on Skittles. Caught Stealing looks like Skittles.
Also, remember those rumors about Austin and Zoë and people were trying to make Austin-and- Zoë a thing in the wake of her breakup with Channing Tatum? And how people saw set videos and photos from Caught Stealing and were like damn, those two are hot together? Yeah, that’s all going to come back around this summer. They are on FIRE in this trailer. Even if there is absolutely nothing to those rumors, I’m not sure anyone will believe it by the time the movie comes out in August. The question is whether or not they lean in, like Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney did, or if they go the “just friends” route and hope it dies down on its own. Assuming, that is, that there is no fire behind that smoke.
