The altering media panorama and our altering media consumption habits imply that film stars do not turn out to be film stars the way in which they used to. New releases on the multiplex should deal with each beforehand launched movie that is available, plus hundreds of TV sequence on a whole lot of streaming platforms, to not point out dozens of social media apps that take up loads of our time and a spotlight. A good-looking, proficient main man cannot rocket to fame anymore thanks solely to a great efficiency and a well-lit {photograph} on the duvet of {a magazine}. Film stardom requires rigorously calibrated and fixed curation of 1’s on-line persona, plus involvement in a string of hit options, which is changing into an more and more tall activity.
Two or three many years in the past, Austin Butler would’ve been the subsequent huge chiseled face with the piercing eyes in each grocery retailer checkout aisle. At this time, the 34-year-old actor has an Instagram account with almost 4 million followers. Followers can catch him chatting over rooster wings on Sizzling Ones or taking a lie detector take a look at on Vainness Honest‘s YouTube web page. Thus far, he is succeeded in Hollywood (in addition to anybody can today) by making all the fitting strikes. He shares simply sufficient about himself to maintain the general public , and he selects tasks that spotlight the truth that he is a staff participant with style and vary, along with these beauty. Butler’s starring function in Caught Stealing is the most recent instance.
Butler Selected the Proper Roles With the Proper Administrators within the Proper Motion pictures
The California native ought to get credit score for navigating the primary main impediment on the trail to stardom: baby appearing. As an adolescent, Butler may very well be seen on tween exhibits like Hannah Montana and iCarly, and later in procedural dramas like CSI: Miami and CSI: NY, in visitor spots. He turned one thing nearer to a family title because the love curiosity of a younger Carrie Bradshaw in The Carrie Diaries. These sorts of roles might’ve served as a launching pad to a profitable profession as a TV hunk, however as an alternative, Butler swerved to bit components in auteur style motion pictures. He briefly appeared in Jim Jarmusch’s 2019 horror comedy, The Useless Do not Die, earlier than being forged as Tex Watson in Quentin Tarantino’s As soon as Upon a Time in Hollywood, which additionally debuted that very same yr.
Butler solely had a couple of minutes of display time because the real-life member of the Manson household, however he made them depend. His follow-up was the title function in one other important and business juggernaut. 2022’s Elvis, directed by Baz Luhrmann, earned Butler his first Oscar nomination. He’d go on to lose to Brendan Fraser and his comeback story with The Whale (directed by Caught Stealing’s Darren Aronofsky), which is able to in all probability be seen as a great factor for Butler’s profession in the long term. Whereas reward for his efficiency was near-unanimous, the one controversy the actor has needed to climate thus far is that he could not appear to shed the crooner’s accent on the press tour.
He subsequent starred because the lead within the 2023 ensemble drama The Bikeriders, alongside Jodie Comer and Tom Hardy. Early on, Jeff Nichols’ adaptation of a non-fiction photojournalism ebook a few bike gang was seen as one more awards contender. Ultimately, it was well-respected however maybe too small to register, but it surely maintained Butler’s popularity as greater than a reasonably boy. A yr later, he took on the small however coveted function of Feyd-Rautha in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Half Two, and his daring interpretation of the character was one of many parts most frequently singled out by critics. Most just lately, he went bizarre for Ari Aster within the political satire, Eddington.
In simply over 5 years, Butler has labored with a number of the business’s most acclaimed administrators, starred in three finest image nominees, and held his personal on display in opposition to the likes of Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Timothée Chalamet, and Joaquin Phoenix. However, extra vital than the clout was the substance of the tasks and the trajectory his profession was taking. Breakout featured function? Test. Music biopic? Test. Indie cred? Test. Huge-budget beloved sci-fi flick? Test. It is a method that is labored for different actors, together with a few of his A-list co-stars.
With ‘Caught Stealing,’ Austin Butler Ranges as much as Film Star
Caught Stealing is Darren Aronofsky’s newest movie, but it surely appears like Austin Butler’s film. Aronofsky is the director behind main downers like Requiem for a Dream, in addition to bewildering experiments like Mom! Although it nonetheless incorporates a few of his signature parts (particularly, psychological and bodily misery), Caught Stealing is a line drive straight down the center of the sphere in comparison with the remainder of his filmography. Hank (Butler), a once-promising baseball prospect whose life has gone far afield of his expectations, finds himself unintentionally entangled within the drug commerce of late Nineteen Nineties New York Metropolis. The movie is such a throwback; anybody might’ve made it and starred in it, but it surely’s higher than common due to Aronofsky, and it is particular due to Butler.
Butler did precisely what he wanted to do with Tex, Elvis, and Feyd-Rautha, however these had been distinctly outlined roles and cogs in an even bigger machine. Hank is essentially the most human character he is ever performed, and he is in almost each minute of the film. He is a captivating, humorous, good-hearted mama’s boy. He is additionally a deeply depressed and emotionally stunted alcohol abuser. The film relies upon fully on Butler’s skill to be a convincing everyman who’s additionally magnetic sufficient to carry the display for nearly two hours. He additionally has crackling chemistry together with his co-star, Zoë Kravitz, and shines within the movie’s many demanding motion sequences.
It isn’t trying like Caught Stealing goes to be a field workplace smash, however with robust opinions and good phrase of mouth, it ought to do properly as soon as it is accessible to stream. Sarcastically, it may be somewhat too business to earn Butler or Aronofsky any awards consideration. The director does have a historical past of getting his actors Oscar nominations (Ellen Burstyn, Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei) and even wins (Natalie Portman, Fraser), but when that is not within the playing cards for Caught Stealing, and if it would not rake in cash, it doesn’t suggest Butler’s made a mistake.
This extremely starry efficiency in a stable film nonetheless represents a leveling-up for the 34-year-old. It is proof of idea that he is the form of main man who can elevate something he is in, and in an business as aggressive because the leisure enterprise, that is what it is going to take to get one other flip on the plate. Caught Stealing is in theaters now.
Caught Stealing
- Launch Date
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August 29, 2025
- Director
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Darren Aronofsky
- Writers
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charlie huston
- Producers
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Ari Handel, Jeremy Dawson