The Promising Youth

In honor of Shia LaBeouf's #1 weekend with Disturbia, I thought I'd post a topic on the most promising young actors working today. The young actor who, in your mind, is good enough to carry a film by themselves. An actor whose filmography you look at to see what they're involved with. And also actors that have proven they have considerable talent in a relatively short period of time. Who's got your attention?

As a way of limiting the choices, I picked "Under 30" as the cut-off point. There are a large number of early 30s talents (Rachel McAdams, Cillian Murphy, Reese Witherspoon, etc. etc.) but I'd say they're in the prime of their career.

These guys are still a little green...

Anyways, I think the most obvious choice to this exercise is Ryan Gosling. Immensely talented and takes projects largely out of the spotlight. But Gosling is drooled over by just about everyone in the industry and out of it as the next big thing when or if he wants to chase it and honestly, he hasn't been in all that many good movies. Maybe it's just as impressive that he stands out even in average films like Murder by Numbers and The Notebook but I'm still waiting on the first Gosling film I truly love. Still, the films that have most highlighted his acting chops so far have to be Half Nelson and The Believer... both very good, but both also would have been trivial indies without him.

My current favorite is Joseph Gordon-Levitt. He sold me completely in Mysterious Skin, when I would previously have written him off as the kid from "3rd Rock" and 10 Things I Hate About You.... Then he does Brick and solidifies his place. I loved that film and Levitt's ability to transition from the charismatic character in Skin to the understated one in Brick was all that much more impressive. I've yet to get to The Lookout but because of him, I'm eager to see it. And that's the marker for this list, if one of these people is leading a film and it draws you in, he's on.

There were a couple of actors that, frankly, I was surprised were still under 30 as well. Gael García Bernal, Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhall specifically. All three have me intrigued. Jake's probably the lesser of the talents, but his film choices make up for it. Hell, he's already got Donnie Darko, Brokeback Mountain and Zodiac on his filmography. Plus, I'll give him Jarhead - which really was sort of a disappointment, but still shows his interest in different themes.

Ledger should have won the Oscar for Brokeback (sorry Philip Seymour). Other than that, my second favorite performance of his actually came in the largely ignored Lords of Dogtown while buried under a stoned surfer get-up. Up until Brokeback though, I think he was drowning in throwaway films (yes, another 10 Things graduate, as well as Casanova, The Brothers Grimm, Ned Kelly, The Patriot and A Knight's Tale). Since then though, his next two projects have really grabbed my attention... Todd Hayne's Bob Dylan rumination I'm Not There and taking over the role of The Joker from Jack in The Dark Knight. So Heath's an example of an actor I didn't give a damn about and have done a complete turnaround on, all before his 30th birthday.

Others that stand out for me include Topher Grace whose In Good Company and Ocean's cameos have me convinced he'll breakout with Spider-Man 3, as well as "The Trio" Natalie Portman, Keira Knightley and Scarlett Johansson (although she needs more Lost in Translation and a lot less The Island). I was even very impressed with Q' Orianka Kilcher's one leading role in The New World.

And a number of others that could move up in the future but I'm not sold on yet include Shia, Mandy Moore, Ben Foster, Bryce Dallas Howard, Dakota Fanning, Anne Hathaway, Evan Rachel Wood, Michael Pitt, Emile Hirsch, Catalina Sandino Moreno and Elisha Cuthbert... whose probably better to look at than she is at acting.