LA Times: Critic Betsy Sharkey offers her personal list of 30 actors under 30 who matter to movies, starting with the youngest.
There are always those actors who rise above early on....They not only make an imprint in the role but they also tantalize about what they might do next.
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Such actors have that sense of promise — one of the first things I look for when I see a new face on-screen — and it became a key factor in compiling my list of 30 under 30 who matter, members of a generation more interested in the art than the artifice. The ones I've singled out represent a diverse array of talent. But there is a tonal quality as well that resonates through the list, an earnestness and directness in the actors' approach to the work, more of what we think of as an indie style even when the project is in blockbuster territory or playing with extremes of sci-fi fantasy.
It's a generational gene pool that is particularly rich in talent, so rich that limiting the list to 30 has required painful cuts.
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Whatever perks of fame and fortune might come their way as a result — and several tied to mega franchises in "Harry Potter" and "Twilight" have had explosive head starts — this crew seems to truly care about the craft.
Yet at some point, a career in the movie industry becomes a question of staying power.
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Pattinson is finally gaining traction with a string of demanding roles in the offing and an impressive turn in the just-released "The Rover," a case of a gritty turn rising above the project.
The final measure for me in weighing whom to include is that sense of trajectory. It's the sense that the roles right around the corner are likely to push the actors to creative and artistic higher ground — that these 30 under 30 won't accede only to what Hollywood, that great lover of youth, desires but that they will also take on a wide range of roles and find ways within each to make them their own — essentially, the Meryl Streep model.
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By the way, for the 30 under 30 who've made my list, there are no statuettes, no red carpet. Just a "well done" from a critic who appreciates those who respect the craft, to those whose artistry is making the movies a better place to spend $14 on a Saturday night.
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Robert Pattinson - 28:
Hit my radar as the swoony vampire in “Twilight”
Proved a keeper after playing the arrogant young billionaire in David Cronenberg’s arty “Cosmopolis”
Looking forward to him as T.E. Lawrence in Werner Herzog’s “Queen of the Desert”
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- Buy (UK)
- Buy(UK)
Twilight (2008)- Trailer - Buy(US)
- Buy(UK)
Little Ashes (2008) -Trailer - Buy(US) - Buy (UK) 
- Buy(UK)
The Haunted Airman (TV)(2006) - Trailer - Buy(US)
- Buy(UK)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) - Trailer - Buy(US) - Buy(UK)
- Buy(UK) 
Vanity Fair (2004)(uncredited) - watch 
