by Team Experience
Beauty is the eye of the beholder and so is sex appeal and cinematic eye candy. So take these rankings as seriously as they were assigned which is to say, barely seriously at all. T'was but a glancing approximation of how many lists each hottie showed up on from our teammates and whether they were high up on said lists. At any rate these faces (and bodies) and born-to-perform stars deserve your wide open appreciative eyes when they're working it onscreen.
We meant to post this last night when the mood was more drunken and festive but it's okay to start a new year off lustily, too! Please to enjoy our choices for the greatest thirst traps of 2020. Which of these stars made you quiver under your bodice or weak at the knees these past twelve months?
20 Henry Golding in MONSOON
There remains plenty of conversation to be had on the subject of straight actors playing gay roles, but I found it particularly difficult to think up any arguments on that front in either direction when there sat the preternaturally breathtaking star of Crazy Rich Asians engaging in scene after scene of fervent nipple play with Grindr pickups.- Jason
19 Taylour Paige in MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM
Few things kill sexiness faster than a lack of humor. Sex should be fun. And Taylour Paige as Dussie Mae is a great reminder of just that with her faux-innocent flirtations and exaggerated femme body language. No wonder Ma got so possessive and handsy. We were as smitten as Levee though we blushed when he started pitching an introduction between 'his red rooster and her brown hen'. Naughty! - Nathaniel
18 Steven Yeun in MINARI
The role of a downtrodden farmer doesn't scream "thirst trap." Fortunately Steven Yeun makes us perpetually thirsty, no matter the role. Under the gaze of director Lee Isaac Chung's camera, Yeun's Jacob looks larger than life. He's a glistening God of hunkiness who expels sweat and tears to make a successful farm. Who doesn't like a man willing to get his hands dirty to create something of value? - Christopher
17 Toby Wallace in BABYTEETH
God bless costume designer Amelia Gebler for dressing Toby Wallace’s Moses - with his tattoos and muscles and shitty haircut - in the shortest fucking basketball shorts that somehow manage to cover everything up and show off everything he's got at the same time, giving him sleeveless or unbuttoned shirts whenever he bothers to wear one. There’s something genuinely uninhibited about Moses, whose labrador energy and easy, inviting grin become the sexiest assets this charismatic crook has in his arsenal, especially against a protagonist and an audience eager to trust him despite some obvious warning signs. - Nick
16 Pedro Pascal in THE MANDALORIAN
The body. The suit. The bedroom voice. The anticipation of him taking the helmet off and knowing what he will look like but still being knocked on your feet by it. This is the way. This is MY way. He and Kylo Ren are the men of Star Wars that truly lock me in to the dark and the light side. - Ginny
15 Hu Ge in WILD GOOSE LAKE
Like most Noir heroes Hu Ge's gangster-on-the-run doesn't have a lot to say, but as with Ryan Gosling in Drive that suits us fine -- we really like watching him not say things. There's a brutal fight scene early on that shows off his impressive action-man skills but the scene that's stuck with me all year is the one where he, stripped to the waist, self-dresses a shoulder wound, wrapping himself in gauze with a few balletic spins. A man that can move like this is a man worth watching. - Jason
14 Oliver Jackson-Cohen in HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR / INVISIBLE MAN
Hypnotizing blue eyes, perfectly chiseled jawline, deliciously imposing physique, that facial hair (or the lack of it), and the right amount of suave. Too bad his beauty is weaponized to forebode the irresistibly sinister nature of his character(s) because he really makes the knees weak. - Juan Carlos
13 Matt Bomer in THE BOYS IN THE BAND
We still haven't forgiven this movie for making us relate to Jim Parson's gay leering -- but that's probably because Parson deployed it so grotesquely in his other 2020 project Hollywood -- because who wouldn't steal glimpses of Bomer in the shower? Especially when the shower is yours and Bomer is just inviting himself in and also being 'so what' about his (considerable) sex appeal. What makes Bomer even sexier in Boys in the Band is the genuine warmth and affection he conveys for friends and ex lovers, something that's otherwise in short supply. - Nathaniel
12 The Men of TENET
Tenet may be tough on the brain but it's damn easy on the eyes, demonstrating that a really well-cut suit can make even a plain man attractive and turn an attractive one into James Bond. Make that two Bonds, one black (John David Washington) and one white (Robert Pattinson), who team up to save the world all the while looking like they just stepped out of a GQ shoot. Somehow they never lose that dashing air no matter how often they get pummeled, knocked out, or inverted. I’ll take both – shaken or stirred - Lynn
11 Carrie Coon in THE NEST
Whether she's trading emotional blows with her exhausting husband (Jude Law), thinking about horses (as girls do), or carrying herself with moneyed aloofness, Coon has never been sexier onscreen. That's especially true when she's werking those 80s fashions and letting her literal hair down to hit the (gay) dance floor. - Nathaniel
10 Anya Taylor-Joy in THE QUEEN'S GAMBIT
The most attractive thing about Beth might not be her beauty but her brains. The frantic energy with which the lanky prodigy prances around indicates a flirtatious nature but it will always come second to the desire to demolish you on the chessboard. - Abe
09 The Men of TRUE HISTORY OF THE KELLY GANG
I'm not sure the movie finds a coherent message within its timely deconstruction of toxic masculinity... and hey maybe there is no coherent message to be had on that subject amid the toxic swill of 2020? But there's charm in its chaos, and nowhere more than in its crotch-forward leering at the hyper-beautiful cast of young actors which director Justin Kurzel gathered up to train his horny lens on -- Charlie Hunnam stripped out of his military uniform, George Mackay's psychotic troupe of silk-slip-rocking revolutionaries, and best of all Nicholas Hoult in nothing but sock garters and a leering smile.- Jason
08 Dev Patel in THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD
Who’d have thunk, all those years ago when gawky, teenage Dev Patel first appeared on our screen in Skins, that he’d grow up to be the dreamiest boat in all of world cinema. Here’s your new James Bond, producers! Why are you still wasting time imagining otherwise? - Baby Clyde
07 Carey Mulligan in PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN
Mulligan's Cassie is, quite literally, a thirst trap. With short blonde hair and a devilish smile, Cassie's drunken club get-ups resemble that of a costume. That's because "damsel in distress" is a role she's playing, rather than her de facto persona. Contrary to what Variety wrote, Mulligan more than sells the sex appeal and confidence that Cassie has. By being comfortable in her body, she's able to wield it as a weapon against men. - Christopher
06 Johnny Flynn in EMMA.
Continuing the fine tradition of Emma adaptations casting hotties to play Mr. Knightley (who does not read as a hottie in the book), Flynn brings his shaggy indie-rock vibe to one of Austen’s most buttoned-up heroes, and the result is pure SEX. The camera knows it, too – look how it ogles his naked body right from the get-go. Even when he’s fully clothed, his bedroom eyes smoulder above that extra-stiff, extra-high collar—as if that could constrain his hotness, or his barely if virtuously sublimated desire to jump Emma’s bones. - Lynn
05 Jeremy Pope in HOLLYWOOD
I've never empathized as much with Rock Hudson as when watching his fictionalized facsimile fall head over heels for Pope's ambitious screenwriter. Talented, confident as hell, the owner of a killer smile, he's utterly irresistible. Pope also happens to look as good with a sharp tuxedo and a golden Oscar as he does in bed wearing nothing at all.- Cláudio
04 Riz Ahmed in THE SOUND OF METAL
Praised be to director Darius Marder for opening Sound of Metal with Riz in all his shirtless, bulky glory. While Riz Ahmed has always been a dreamboat, it took him playing a muscular musician who cooks and cares for his partner to turn our drooling as we gawk at his beauty into waterfalls. - Matt
03 Aubrey Plaza in THE HAPPIEST SEASON
The knock on Plaza has been that she drips sarcasm in every role, but she smartly sidelines that this time out. Instead she's exuding graceful sex appeal. Her character Riley is so fun in public. Now imagine how fun she is behind closed doors. And (pictured above) that look... - Ben
02 Jonathan Majors in LOVECRAFT COUNTRY / DA 5 BLOODS
I came into this year already nurturing a crush on Majors due to his terrific performance in The Last Black Man in San Francisco, but Lovecraft Country (and to a lesser extent Da 5 Bloods) showed me something that that film did not... and yes I mean his body. Admittedly flashing that ridiculous physique of his would've been out of place in Joe Talbot's masterpiece, but I'm thankful the writers, directors, and most of all the costume designers on HBO's betentacled monster show realized that this, now, was the moment to forward some different gifts of Mr. Major's. Must See TV became Must Gawp on his big, broad, beautiful shoulders. - Jason
01 Paul Mescal in NORMAL PEOPLE
As if the sea-blue eyes, the short shorts, the gleaming smile, and his legendary gold chain aren’t enough, Paul Mescal shows off the biggest turn-on known as consent. Ensuring your partner is safe and comfortable during intercourse, asking if this or that is okay as you go along, is quite the attractive trait. - Matt