Nicholas Hoult Is Technically the Best Male Movie Star Born in 1989
Apologies to Daniels Radcliffe and Kaluuya, but it’s true
On New Year’s Day, my wife and I went to see a matinee at the theater in our neighborhood (shoutout to Rialto Cinemas Elmwood, Berkeley’s last remaining movie theater). The true Dad Shows pick would have been A Complete Unknown, the biopic of Dad icon Bob Dylan, but we really wanted to see Nosferatu, because we love The Northman, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the original silent Nosferatu, and the Slint song “Nosferatu Man.” When we got home, we decided to make the it into a Nicholas Hoult double feature day with Juror #2. My verdict is that Nicholas Hoult might not technically be the best male movie star born in 1989 yet, but he will be.
1989 is a weak birth year for male movie stars. (I can say it because I was also born in 1989.) There are only four men born that year who I would consider movie stars: Daniel Radcliffe, Daniel Kaluuya, Taron Egerton, and Hoult. Alden Ehrenreich and Jonathan Majors were almost movie stars but they didn’t pan out, Ehrenreich because Solo was a disaster and Majors because of his domestic violence scandal. Simu Liu could eventually make the list, but he’ll need to lead a non-Marvel hit first. I don’t know why there are no American top-tier male movie stars born in 1989, but I find it disappointing.
Of the four on the list, Radcliffe is by far the most famous, but only because he’s Harry Potter. He’s a legacy star, not a current one. The other three are not quite household names, but Hoult has the best chance of the three of becoming one.
Kaluuya has had the most creative success. He starred in Get Out, the defining movie of the 2010s, and won an Oscar for his towering performance in Judas and the Black Messiah. He’s been selective with the parts he takes. He hasn’t been in a ton of movies, but the ones he’s been in have pretty much all been good (I recently made my own list of the five best films of the 2020s so far, and Nope was on it). His only franchise movie was Black Panther. But his movie star clout is waning. Since he broke through with Get Out, he has stuck almost exclusively to movies with racial themes, and he may struggle to adapt to the post-woke vibe shift. He also doesn’t create viral content in interview clips, and very little is known outside of his personal life outside of weird rumors from a couple of years ago that a spiritual guru was running his life. He’s tremendously talented, but seems more like a true artist than a capital-M Movie Star. He doesn’t seem to want it. I could see him aging into being a world-weary Stellan Skarsgård type: great in everything, magnetic to watch, but more of a character actor who gets leading roles sometimes. As a Movie Star, Hoult will probably overtake him, especially if Hoult wins an Oscar.
Egerton does want to be a Movie Star, and is almost there. He broke out in the Kingsmen movies, won a Golden Globe for playing Elton John in Rocketman, and was really good in and got an Emmy nomination for the prestige limited series Black Bird. His new action movie Carry-On is an original star vehicle for him and one of the most-watched Netflix movies of 2024, which is of course a bit like being the biggest flea. But even though he’s handsome and charming, he’s not as good of an actor as Kaluuya, hasn’t defined himself as a type of guy the way Hoult has, and has never been in a great movie. He’s still on the ascent, but he has a lower ceiling.
Nicholas Hoult, though, has had a great career so far. He broke out as a child actor in the early 2000s with About a Boy, which is a really good movie. He — along with Kaluuya — was on Skins, a cult classic teen dramedy, which gave him a small but loyal fanbase of people who will always love him. He had an early franchise in the X-Men: First Class movies and dated Jennifer Lawrence. As Nux, the war boy who learns how to love, he’s the emotional center of Mad Max: Fury Road. He wasn’t the star of that movie — the War Rig was — but he helped make it great. He was in The Favourite with three of the best actresses alive, earned an Emmy nomination for The Great, and was the best part of The Menu, a bad but popular movie. Being the best part of a bad movie is a high-level skill.
He stars in three movies released at the end of 2024: Juror #2, Nosferatu, and The Order, the latter of which I haven’t seen but am looking forward to. Straightforward legal thriller Juror #2 and elaborate gothic horror Nosferatu couldn’t be more different, but Hoult plays similar types of guys in both of them. Justin Kemp and Thomas Hutter are both flawed but well-meaning men who love their wives. When they show weakness, it’s understandable, even relatable, more pitiable than contemptible. The ability to thread that needle is Hoult’s signature thing. Even when he’s playing morally bankrupt characters like Tyler in The Menu or Peter III in The Great, he maintains a certain vulnerability, like he wants to do the right thing but doesn’t know how. Being prone to moral weakness while still being charming is a difficult balancing act, but Hoult has figured out how to pull it off over and over again. It’s really impressive, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he wins an Oscar for it someday.
He’s playing Lex Luthor in Superman this summer, and it could be a career-defining role for him. If the movie works, he’ll join the ranks of iconic superhero movie villains, and his casting bodes well. He’ll make us feel bad for Lex Luthor, who is pathetically jealous of Superman because people like him more. If the movie succeeds at being as good and as big as it needs to be, it could finally make Hoult into someone even people who don’t watch a lot of movies recognize.
There is one thing about Hoult that makes me wonder if he can truly ascend to whatever major movie stardom looks like now, though. The biggest male stars — Denzel Washington, Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise — appeal to men and women equally, and Hoult has not demonstrated an ability to broadly connect with a male audience. He doesn’t have much of a public persona, so if he’s known at all it’s for his screen persona, which is a sensitive, romantic, beautiful British man. Even when he’s muscular, he doesn’t seem tough. If he wants to win over men, his best bet is to get weird and intense, like his old co-star Tom Hardy, or his nemesis Robert Pattinson, who famously won the role of Batman over him.
Actually, you know what would really put Hoult over with the bros? A finance movie like The Wolf of Wall Street. His charming/pitiable thing, air of refinement, and boyish face lend themselves to a Ponzi schemer or Wall Street scammer. Maybe he could play Hollywood Ponzi schemer Zach Horwitz.
Hoult has already had a long career, and if he keeps making smart decisions and landing good parts, pretty soon he won’t have competition for the made-up title of Best Male Movie Star Born in 1989, unless Taron Egerton somehow turns into Tom Hanks.
P.S. You may be surprised to realize that the best female movie star born in 1989 so far is, oddly enough, Brie Larson. But everyone born in 1989 is second to Taylor Swift, who has claimed the year as her own, for better or worse.
you're so right and real and radical for this
Also a 1989er here. And yes, I like Hoult ever since I saw him in Skins, and he's slowly getting better and better. You should definitely see The Order for 2 reasons: 1) Hoult is doing his most masculine performance in it so far, and 2) It can fit the criteria of a Dad Movie, though more because of Jude Law's burnout detective than Hoult's fanatic cult leader.