Battle of sensitive guys

"For a young actor, staking out the niche of soulful, long-lashed, sensitive dreamer isn't the worst possible strategy. In fact, for those under the age of eighteen, the more sensitive and long-lashed (read: girly) they are, the easier it is to attract girl fans who will embrace the actors' sexlessness.

Every generation needs its own off-brand James Dean -- usually more than one -- so no one goes hungry and millions of girls doodle their crushes' names on their Trapper Keepers, daydreaming about their hairless chests and delicate wrists. [...]

And though sad-eyed misfit roles are plentiful for the high school-aged, there are ever fewer of them as those actors age: it's why we only need one Jake Gyllenhaal,

and why Shia LeBeouf and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, at this moment, are so busily showing us that they should replace him when he ages out of his current slot. (Or, rather, beefs out of it, which he kind of already has, as you know if you saw "Jarhead". It's actually the accumulation of muscle that causes the Gyllentype to grow up, for the public; see Tobey Maguire in "Spider-Man",

Keanu Reeves in "The Matrix",

and, someday, Lou Taylor Pucci as the lead in a film adaptation of Jose Canseco's "Juiced".)

[...]"Holes" made LeBeouf not just tomorrow's Gyllenhaal but the new Shirley Temple, practically: he was artlessly, uselessly shoehorned into the likes of "I, Robot" and "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle". [...]

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is gunning straight for him.

Gordon-Levitt started out in the business even younger than LeBeouf did; you might remember him as George, the neighbourhood kid so boring and weird that even D.J. Conner doesn't like him, on "Roseanne", but you probably didn't know that it was his twenty-second professional credit. It's no surprise that he is one of the few Los Angelenos who was actually born there; one could even say he was bred there with the sole purpose of supporting his parents as a child star. Anyway, we can probably assume he wasn't horrible misused, as he continued to work once he was old enough to know what was going on -- as Tommy Solomon on "3rd Rock From The Sun", in "10 Things I Hate About You", and in guest shots on "That '70s Show" and (perhaps just to stick to his pattern) "Numb3rs".

And, suddenly, he's making an effort to show us how serious he can be -- in the well-reviewed high-school noir flick "Brick",

Joseph Gordon-Levitt in two scenes from "Brick" by Rian Johnson.

and in the current "Shadowboxer", opposite the eminent Helen Mirren. And though we're positing Gordon-Levitt as a contender to be the next Gyllenhaal, we would be remiss not to point out the physical resemblance between Gordon-Levitt and Gyllenhaal's Brokeback love interest, Heath Ledger (also a G-L co-star, back in 10 Things). Gordon-Levitt may not yet evince the physical heft that would have us believing he could herd anything larger than a weiner dog, but we'd probably buy him mournfully sniffing a work shirt or two.

Which of our wispy young dreamers is better situated now to play another sensitive math student (as Gyllenhaal did in "Proof") or slightly unhinged discount-store bagger (as Gyllenhaal did in "The Good Girl")? Turns out the answer is pretty clear. The next two films on Gordon-Levitt's CV find him playing a psychopath (reminiscent of Brad Pitt's Oscar-nominated role in "12 Monkeys", perhaps?) in John Madden's "Killshot", and a brain-damaged janitor (reminiscent of every "heart-tugging cripple" role that's ever won anyone a Best Actor Oscar) in "The Lookout". And LeBeouf is going to be in the Transformers movie. And not as a Transformer! WEAK.

Advantage: Gordon-Levitt."
Source: Fametracker.com