Four film critics for The Hollywood Reporter discuss Chalamet in a segment today on the best performances of the year. Not a mention for Hedges in Honey Boy or Waves
SHERI LINDEN: It certainly has been a remarkable movie year for men. Even in Little Women, it isn't the sisters who truly compel but Timothée Chalamet's gloriously weird, awkward and transparently smitten Laurie.
FROSCH: Sheri, it's our annual Chalamet praise-fest! This guy is just so damn good that I fear we (and by "we," I mean everyone else) are already taking him for granted. Between the unearthed high-school rap videos and the global heartthrob-ery, he's become meme bait — which, I'm afraid, may prevent some viewers from receiving his work with the seriousness it deserves ("Haha, look at Timmy in Medieval armor!"). His shrewd, fiercely contained turn in The King — you can see his Hal always thinking, strategizing, ruminating — was under-appreciated. And, as you point out, he's the most poignant and unpredictable element of Greta Gerwig's Little Women ensemble — the one who really takes his character and runs with it, conjuring a rich, idiosyncratic inner world beyond what's on the page (his declaration of love to Saiorse Ronan's resistant Jo is a scene of swoony, panicky heartache for the ages). This is an actor whose every performance feels shaped by a deep emotional intelligence, an ability to burrow his way to the essence of the person he's embodying and a willingness to play against, or beyond, expectations. I can't wait 'til he shares the screen with Adam Driver.
LINDEN: I wouldn't have thought to call Driver the new Brando, as David does, but the comparison makes perfect sense. I've found myself making a similar comparison: Chalamet's work in Little Women and in The King might not immediately bring to mind Montgomery Clift, but when I reflect on his performances over the past couple of years, I see him as an inheritor of Clift's elegant transmutation of complexity, restraint, unpredictability and physical nuance. When was the last time a new generation of actors brought to mind such towering figures of the cinematic pantheon?
ROONEY: I like that comparison, Sheri. The back-to-back impact of Chalamet's deeply thoughtful work as the reluctant monarch in The King, growing steadily more steely as he grapples with the conflicts of his royal inheritance, and the aching emotion of his Laurie in Little Women shows that we're still seeing new aspects of an extraordinary range this young actor is only beginning to explore. It's going to be thrilling to watch him continue to develop his already formidable craft.
MCCARTHY: And I can only echo the praise for the clear male standouts you all have identified. Chalamet did it for me again with his unexpectedly quiet and observant takes on iconic literary roles.