The Up And Comers of the Decade

• Ken Jones, Chief Film Critic

It’s always fun at the end of a decade to look back and reflect on the movies, actors, and directors who established themselves. If we look at the 2010s, some names that come immediately to my mind are Denis Villeneuve, Yorgos Lanthimos, Greta Gerwig, Saoirse Ronan, Jessica Chastain, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Margot Robbie, Adam Driver, Jordan Peele, and Oscar Isaac. Many of them were working before 2010, but most of us did not know their names to start the decade, and now they have established themselves as some of the biggest names in the business.

Right now, everything is on pause because of COVID-19, but eventually, studios will get back to making new movies for people to see. So, who are some of the names we should be looking out for in Hollywood over the next decade? Here are the actors, actresses, and directors who will be names you should be aware of for the 2020s.

16. Storm Reid
What You’ve Seen Her In: A Wrinkle in Time (2018), The Invisible Man (2020)
Where You Can See Her Next:  The Suicide Squad (2021)

Storm Reid is still young, only 16, but has already been the lead of a Disney blockbuster, A Wrinkle in Time. While I thought the movie itself was a bit uneven, Reid stood out as a strong positive, a young actress who seemed natural and comfortable in front of the camera and mature beyond her years, similar to how Elle Fanning impressed me when I first saw Super 8. She has been in quite a few things since, most notably in a supporting role in the recent release, The Invisible Man.

Reid has an as-yet unnamed role in The Suicide Squad. With James Gunn on board as director, that movie could be a promising improvement over 2016’s Suicide Squad. Reid is a talented young actress, and a talented young actress of color, too, so it will be interesting to see which roles she is cast in over the next decade. Would it be too on the nose for Marvel to cast Storm as Storm in the eventual X-Men reboot? Beyond that, though, what roles might she get that could expand the playing field for young, black actresses in Hollywood. Time will tell.

15. Robert Eggers
What You’ve Seen From Him: The VVitch (2016), The Lighthouse (2019)
What You Can See From Him Next: The Northman (TBA), Nosferatu (???)

Eggers put himself on the map with 2016’s The VVitch, an atmospheric horror movie set in the early New England colonial times that sees the family dynamic rapidly dissolve for a family living on the edge of the imposing, untamed woods. His follow-up, The Lighthouse was a black and white descent into madness featuring two Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe while isolated on a rock in the middle of the ocean. Eggers has shown a knack for nailing period-specific horror, from dialogue to costumes, and evokes a mood like few others.

Eggers next film it titled The Northman, and it’s a Viking revenge drama set in 10th Century Iceland. Anya Taylor-Joy, Alexander Skarsgard, Nicole Kidman, Bill Skarsgard, and Willem Dafoe are currently attached to the film. Eggers has also had eyes on a remake of Nosferatu for some time, apparently, so that is another film that we may have to look forward to from him. He’s well on his way to establishing himself as one of the preeminent voices of the horror genre, and The Northman may be a chance for him to expand beyond the genre and become a bigger director.

14. Haley Lu Richardson
What You’ve Seen Her In: The Edge of Seventeen (2016), Split (2016), Columbus (2017), Support the Girls (2018), Five Feet Apart (2019)
Where You Can See Her Next: After Yang (2020), Unpregnant (TBA)

Ok, so there’s a good chance that you might not have seen Richardson because none of those movies were mainstream successes outside of Split. But Richardson, stood out in a supporting role in Split, The Edge of Seventeen, and in Support the Girls (which is a criminally underseen gem). I haven’t seen Columbus, but I have heard glowing things about it, and some film enthusiasts thought Five Feet Apart might be a rom-com breakout role for her. Sadly, that didn’t happen. After Yang, which has her re-teaming with Columbus director Kogonada, is a sci-fi drama about a father and daughter trying to save the life of their robotic family member. Unpregnant look like an adaptation of a YA novel about a high school pregnancy that threatens the college plans of a senior. Richardson is someone who I remain high on because of her natural ease as an actress.

13. Elsie Fisher
What You’ve Seen/Heard Her In: Despicable Me (2010), Despicable Me 2 (2013), Eighth Grade (2018)
Where You Can See Her Next: The Shaggs (TBA)

To date, Fisher is best known as the voice of Agnes in the first two Despicable Me movies. However, she wowed audiences with her unfiltered and vulnerable performance as Kayla in the comedy-drama Eighth Grade. The Shaggs looks to be a biopic about a sister rock band from 1968. The movie is listed as in pre-production in IMDb, so there is still a long way to go on that, so what else from her recommends her for greatness this next decade? What impressed me as much as Eighth Grade from Fisher was her announcement on Twitter of what she dubbed the Elsie Awards, because “sometimes other [awards] suck.” And she had good taste in her nominees and categories!

12. Jaeden Martell
What You’ve Seen Him In: St. Vincent (2014), Midnight Special (2016), It (2017), It Chapter Two (2019), Knives Out (2019)
Where You Can See Him Next: Tunnels (2021), Defending Jacob (AppleTV)

Jaeden Martell may be something of a cheat on my part, having already starred in his fair share of movies (Midnight Special, both It movies), as well as having a small supporting role in last year’s highly enjoyable Knives Out. Anyone who has seen him act in any of these films knows that he shows promise as a young up and coming actor. There are a lot of promising young actors that were part of the It cast; Jaeden was the most established of the group and I think he remains the one with the most break out potential of that group. He’s had good fortune in the movies he’s been cast in so far, with The Book of Henry being the only real dud. It’s often an adventure for child actors transitioning to adult actors, but Jaeden looks like he could be one who makes it and excels as both.

11. Lulu Wang
What You’ve Seen From Her: The Farewell (2019)
What You Can See From Her Next: Children of the New World (???)

The Farewell was a multi-generational family comedy-drama that was a critical darling last year, even though it was largely shut out during award season. Nevertheless, Wang is a director to keep an eye on in the coming decade. She is attempting to adapt a collection of sci-fi short stories that are also focused on family. I love sci-fi that is big and aspirational, but still has some grounding in universally human themes. She would be a welcome addition to directors capable of pulling that off. As an added bonus, she is also in a relationship with Oscar-winning director Barry Jenkins. Here’s to hoping that their relationship and support of one another pushes them both to make great work this decade. And if she were to win an Oscar too, they’d be a big-time Hollywood power couple behind the camera.

10. Andrew Bujalski
What You’ve Seen From Him: Computer Chess (2014), Results (2015), Support the Girls (2018), Lady and the Tramp (2019)
What You Can See From Him Next: ???

Bujalski might be the biggest reach on here for me, but the man who was dubbed “The Godfather of Mumblecore” has seen a lot of contemporaries go on to bigger success in the last decade. It looks like he is creeping more and more toward the mainstream. Computer Chess and Results were hidden gems that people found on Netflix. Support the Girls was widely praised at the end of 2018 by many film critics. And his most recent credit was working on the screenplay for Lady and the Tramp, which came out on Disney+. It would not surprise me to find him garnering more mainstream success as we enter the 2020s.

9. David Robert Mitchell
What You’ve Seen From Him: It Follows (2015), Under the Silver Lake (2019)
What You Can See From Him Next: ???

One of the best horror movies of the decade was It Follows, a synth-filled 80s tribute of a horror movie about sex and teens with nonexistent parents. Mitchell’s follow-up, Under the Silver Lake, had a tortured path to release, with it finally finding a home on Amazon Prime. It was an ambitious but flawed picture, but it has already attained something of an instant cult classic status as a “millennial noir.” It’s unclear what David Robert Mitchell’s next project is, but it’s safe to say that he won’t play it safe. Whatever comes from him, his previous work has made him someone who deserves our attention.

8. John David Washington
What You’ve Seen Him In: BlacKkKlansman (2018), Ballers (HBO)
What You Can See Him In Next: Tenet (2020), Born To Be Murdered (TBA)

It’s got to be hard to make a name for yourself when your dad is Denzel Washington. But I would not put it past John David Washington to pull it off. I have not watched the HBO series Ballers, but Washington definitely caught my attention with his performance in BlacKkKlansman. And now he is going to be seen in the upcoming Christopher Nolan film, Tenet. That is a ringing vote of confidence. And Born To Be Murdered sounds like an intriguing thriller. Washington could well be on his way to having the rocket strapped to his back and becoming a star. If he has even half the versatility and range of his dad, then we’ll be lucky.

7. Ari Aster
What You’ve Seen From Him: Hereditary (2018), Midsommar (2019)
What You Can See From Him Next: ???

Ari Aster put himself on the map in the latter half of the 2010s with as impressive of an opening 1-2 punch as you are likely to find for a director making his debut feature films. Hereditary scared the living pants off of most people who saw it, and Midsommar was a psychedelic hallucination of a movie about a pagan cult. Whatever this guy is making next, I am there for it. He is a director that has shown a lot of promise; if his first two films are any indication, he is a director who has a clear vision of what he wants and how to bring it to life. He’s had the great fortune of working with the best quality studio in the business so far in A24, here’s hoping that he is allowed to continue making movies where his vision is unimpeded by the studios. It’s currently unknown what his next project is, but he has said it is either a “zonky nightmare comedy or a big, sickly domestic melodrama.”

6. Sean Baker
What You’ve Seen From Him: Starlet (2012), Tangerine (2015), The Florida Project (2017)
What You Can See From Him Next: ???

It’s arguable that no one has done less with more than Sean Baker as a director in the past decade. He has shot Tangerine on an iPhone 5s. Baker’s films have been praised by critics, but he has not achieved wide-spread audience recognition yet. Of all of the directors listed I’ve listed here, he is the oldest. So it may be that the odds are stacked against him in terms of ever finding a wide audience. However, Baker is the most humane of all the directors on this list; he has a very empathetic camera for his characters. He has made his career so far focusing on the people living on the margins of society. The movie industry is changing and society is also changing and people who previously did not have a voice are finding a chance to have their voices be heard more frequently. If this trend continues throughout the decade, Baker’s work could shine a light and provide a mic for more of those voices to be heard, and he could receive recognition and acclaim in the process. Here’s hoping.

5. Anya Taylor-Joy
What You’ve Seen Her In:  The VVitch (2016), Split (2017), Thoroughbreds (2018), Glass (2019), Emma. (2020)
What You Can See Her In Next: The New Mutants (2020), Last Night in Soho (2020), The Northman (TBA)

I was fully ready to declare Anya Taylor-Joy a cheat on my part, but then I looked at her IMDb and realized that, outside of the M. Night Shyamalan combo of Split and Glass, there is a pretty good chance that most people do not know who Anya Taylor-Joy is by name. But they will. It’s entirely possible that Emma. is her breakout role, or at least it would have been if it hadn’t been for the pandemic outbreak happening right as it was releasing in theaters. She is a delight as the lead character in that Jane Austen adaptation. Unfortunately, she is in the multi-delayed The New Mutants, which was supposed to have come out in 2018 and has been shelved and pushed back several times. But with Emma. and an upcoming Edgar Wright film in Last Night in Soho, I expect very big things from her and for her over the next few years.

4. LaKeith Stanfield
What You’ve Seen Him In: Short Term 12 (2013), Straight Outta Compton (2015), Get Out (2017), Sorry To Bother You (2018), Uncut Gems (2019), Knives Out (2019), Atlanta (FX)
What You Can See Him In Next: Untitled Fred Hampton Project (TBA)

LaKeith Stanfield has been one of the most prolific names on this list in the past few years; aside from being a series regular on Donald Glover’s FX show Atlanta, he was the lead in Sorry To Bother You and has had several supporting roles in a lot of very good films as far back as Short Term 12 (2013). He’s already made a name for himself and is still only 28. I’m very excited any time I see his name in the opening credits of a film. He’s shown versatility across a wide range of roles too. I see Oscar nominations in Stanfield’s future. If he were to win, he would join the ranks of Brie Larson and Rami Malek, his co-stars in Short Term 12 in that regard, which could quietly make that film one of the most influential films of the 2010s in hindsight. Especially if another name a little higher on the list pans out.

3. Thomasin McKenzie
What You’ve Seen Her In: Leave No Trace (2018), The King (2019), Jojo Rabbit (2019)
What You Can See Her In Next: Last Night in Soho (2020), The Power of the Dog (2021)

Jojo Rabbit was probably most people’s first exposure to Thomasin McKenzie, though if you happened to see Leave No Trace then you were likely blown away by her performance in that. McKenzie, who hails from New Zealand, has been acting since 2012, and even had a small role in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies in 2014. She turns 20 this year and while she hasn’t received mainstream awards recognition yet, she has garnered widespread acclaim and recognition critic circles and festival circuit awards. She has a poise that few actresses have at her age. I see awards in her future. And she’s co-starring with Anya Taylor-Joy in the Edgar Wright film Last Night in Soho, and Power of the Dog is a Jane Campion film. The future is very bright for Thomasin McKenzie.

2. Kaitlyn Dever
What You’ve Seen Her In: Justified (FX), Last Man Standing (ABC/Fox), Short Term 12 (2013), Detroit (2017), Booksmart (2019)
What You Can See Her In Next: ???
Kaitlyn Dever was a child actor who I “bought stock in” when I first saw her in Season 2 of the FX series Justified. Timothy Olyphant’s Raylan Givens was something of a father-figure to her recurring teenage character Loretta. I can’t speak to her time on the Tim Allen sitcom, Last Man Standing, but like LaKeith Stanfield, she was also in Short Term 12. Her big movie breakthrough was last year in the teenage comedy Booksmart, in which she and co-star Beanie Feldstein killed it. She also recently starred in a Netflix limited series drama, Unbelievable. Oddly enough, she has no future films listed on IMDb, not that it matters to me. I’ve been a Dever believer since 2011, and I’m not selling my stock anytime soon.

1. Florence Pugh
What You’ve Seen Her In: Lady Macbeth (2017), Fighting with My Family (2019), Midsommar (2019), Little Women (2019)
What You Can See Her In Next: Black Widow (2020)

Character versatility, emotional range, able to pull off a physically demanding role; is there anything Florence Pugh can’t do? If so, I haven’t found it yet. The 24-year-old Brit from Oxford had one of the best 2019s of anyone in the movie industry starring in three very different films, and earning an Oscar nomination in the process. She was a convincing wrestler in Fighting with My Family. She cried her way through the acid trip horror of Midsommar. And she stole the show in Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of Little Women. And for her next performance she is starring alongside ScarJo in Black Widow. She has firmly established herself as perhaps the best young actress working today. The Oscar nomination she received for Little Women feels like just the beginning for her. On Letterboxd, my one sentence take on Little Women was simply, “Florence Pugh is going to be a star.” I remain steadfast in that assessment.