His characters are handicapped by the inevitability of his confidence #timotheechalamet #michaelbjordan #bestactor #oscars #oscarspostcontest

If Timothy Chalamet doesn't win Best Actor, it'll have nothing to do with his opinions on Bally or the Opera and everything to do with what makes a great performance. Because a great performance is not any one thing. It's not just a transformation, it's not just high energy or raw passion. Or sweating your guts out on screen like you're suffering the act of triathlon. What makes the best performances is a dynamic range within consistent characterization. Vito Corleone isn't just a good voice with good makeup prosthetics. Because we get to see the effortlessness of his power and the vulnerability of his despair. In the absence of that internal range, he would just be another colorful character like the countless other mafia dons in movies. But the breadth of his internal world, that makes him real. And Timothy Chalamet, who is obviously a very skilled and well-trained generational talent makes his characters real, but so far that realness stops at the vulnerability of a confident NYU student, all of whom have an invisible veneer over them. Because as of now, every single one of his characters from Dune to Marty Supreme are still that confident NYU student, charming, cocksure, brooding in all the same cool ways. But what is being withheld from me as an audience member so far is the honesty and accessibility of the unremarkable. The poetry of the banal and the vulnerability of one's genuine weakness. And every good character has weakness in them somewhere. Which is something that each of his competitors in this category currently trounce him at. But none more obviously or more spectacularly than Michael B. Jordan in sinners. Who gives us two consistent yet contrasting characterizations. Who within their own arcs display distinctively different internal worlds. And they're in completely unique emotional life. People can stack our happy differently, our frightened differently, our confident and deflated and vengeful. Both believably and consistently but also entirely unique to themselves. And we get to see and are invited into the breadth of both of them. By the end of the film, we know both these men. Their individual dreams, insecurities, weaknesses and problem solving. And how differently they react in both victory and defeat. So perfectly and fully that neither of these characters are Michael B. Jordan as so and so. In contrast, we talk about Timothy Shalame in Marty Supreme. But instead get to be in their fullness and realization, just smoke and stack. Two characters cracked from the marble and existing in unmistakable totality. By the rightful best actor of the year. But I'm not worried about Timothy Shalame. He has more acting talent than most actors dream of having and he will get his chance someday. I just hope it's after he strips away his natural confidence and shows us a little bit more of the smallness we all have inside.