Robert Pattinson Is a New Kind of Movie Star: The Anti-Tom Cruise

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

Chief Film Critic

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In the last few years (ever since “Top Gun: Maverick”), Tom Cruise has often been hailed as The Last Movie Star. He’s certainly the gold standard, though it might be appropriate to add Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts to that category too. All three feel like The Last Movie Stars — though what I’m really saying, of course, is that they’re the last movie stars to come out of the monoculture. That’s why all three are monostars. You still feel that any of them, in the right light, can own the screen and own the world. That’s baked into the karma of their presence. It’s what drives their larger-than-life quality.

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