Though he has steadily acted since his teenage years in in TV series like “Homeland” and big-budget flicks like “Interstellar,” it was Timothée Chalamet’s sensitive and sensual turn as 17-year-old Elio Perlman in Luca Guadagnino’s 2017 romance “Call Me by Your Name” that turned the young actor into a household name.
Chalamet’s performance as a lovestruck teen aching for the graduate-student assistant (played by Armie Hammer) staying with the Perlman family during a sun-kissed Italian summer garnered widespread acclaim and earned the then-22-year-old star an Academy Award nomination, making Timothée the youngest Best Actor nominee since 1939. Writing for The Hollywood Reporter, Boyd van Hoeij called Chalamet’s performance “the true breakout of the film,” and The Economist praised the rising star for “portraying a path of youthful self-discovery that is more raw, unhinged, and ultimately honest than many actors could manage.”
With another great Timothée Chalamet movie hitting theaters this week — as folk-poet icon Bob Dylan in James Mangold’s “A Complete Unknown,” which dropped in cinemas on Wednesday, Dec. 25 — you might want to revisit one of the performer’s best early roles. (And today is as good a day as any, given that Dec. 27 is Chalamet’s birthday!) However, you only have a few more days to watch “Call Me by Your Name” on its current streaming home of Netflix, as the acclaimed title will be leaving the platform on Tuesday, Dec. 31. That means if you’re a Netflix subscriber and “CMBYN” superfan, you’ll have to fit in the swoon-worthy romantic drama somewhere in between your regularly scheduled holiday streaming plans.
But good news for those of you with a Max subscription: the Guadagnino-directed drama will be ringing in the new year by making its way onto that streaming platform on Wednesday, Jan. 1. Max also plays host to several other Chalamet-led hit films including “Wonka,” “Lady Bird” and Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune” franchise, so you can make it a whole Timothée-themed movie marathon for your end-of-year binge fest.
Along with Chalamet and Hammer, the cast of “Call Me by Your Name” includes Michael Stuhlbarg — offering up one of the most moving parental pep-talks in cinematic history — Amira Casar, Esther Garrel, and Victoire du Bois. (Author André Aciman, who wrote the 2007 novel on which the film is based, also makes a spirited cameo.) “CMBYN” also kicked off another collaboration between Chalamet and director Guadagnino (“Queer”, “Challengers”), with the actor and filmmaker reuniting for the 2022 romantic horror film “Bones and All.”
