Alternate Best Actor 2022: Timothée Chalamet in Bones and All

Timothée Chalamet did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Lee in Bones and All. 

Bones And All is a largely compelling, and strangely humane, film about a teenage girl Maren (Taylor Russell) struggling with her urge for cannibalism. 

Let's talk over the much fawned over Timothée Chalamet, who with many a straight-to-stardom with a rabid fan base leads to an aggressive ant-fan base, in turn, many reactions to his talent being that of just extremes, which don't effectively articulate the performer. Which means actually taking each performance on its own. Chalamet appears about 30 minutes into the film, as while I do think he is the lead, he is very definitely the secondary lead to Taylor Russell. He first appears as the second fellow cannibal she comes across via their strange smelling ability. Showing up at a grocery store where Lee takes on an obnoxious drunk, who he tricks into following him out of the store, where he eats the man. Although I wouldn't say Chalamet's charisma has always been completely obvious to me in every performance, it is extremely evident here from that first scene. As he cuts through the screen in his immediacy and really I'd say his kind of cool as he darts out at the guy, and just establishes himself with a very James Deanesque sort of presence. He's not your typical confidence, although it is still all about confidence even in a more withdrawn kind of way. 

In his first major scene, after he has eaten and Maren goes to talk to him, Chalamet really does mumble most of his lines in his rather dismissive manner towards her with each word. It works though as Chalamet manages to play it as someone who actually is a bit at ill ease at being seen at this moment though as someone who is trying to play it off like it doesn't matter to him. Finding in his kind of mumbling whispers that Lee is just trying not to engage, as it seems like they should avoid cannibals. When Maren essentially makes her intentions pretty clear, she goes along with Lee, and he takes her to his last victim's home. Chalamet is great in this scene in the sheer exuberance where he plays it kind of a kid in a candy store in the sense of fun he brings and the eagerness he is to show off to Maren the various records the guy has. Chalamet is terrific by showing very much the "fun" that Lee is able to have despite his very atypical lifestyle, and becomes much more open as well as clear in his performance as he brings Maren along into his world. 

Afterward, Chalamet with Russell find really fantastic chemistry, that isn't instantly romantic, but what they rather find is an instant connection. Chalamet's performance is wonderful in this scene by adjusting towards genuinely listening to her and creating a sense of keen empathy between the two in their conversation. As much as Chalamet brings charisma at the moment, his charm really in the conversation is just how he looks at her. Chalamet is so genuine towards her that every step of the way there is sincerity, and in that he expresses the sort of solace the two can have of mutual experience even while technically troubled by it. Chalamet though reflects it as this kind of comforting "expert" towards her, without pompousness but rather an attempt to truly make her more at ease with her condition. Not that Lee is at all a man fully comfortable with himself. The two are really lovely together and the two building the connection couldn't feel more natural despite their connection is quite unnatural. The two though bring something so essential with just how humane their relationship is in these early moments as Chalamet shows Lee just opening up to her more than anything. Their movement towards more overly romantic chemistry is so natural because it starts just with this ease and intimacy that the two build together. With just so much being in the way they look at each other that speaks, o much to an essential connection between them.

As the two speak more often, particularly on the aspect of cannibalism, is where Chalamet gives almost a proper rectification of his earlier work in Beautiful Boy that fumbled around the idea of an addict. Here though Chalamet expresses it far more pointedly, despite the addiction being for human flesh, the certain drive in Lee for the flesh, and the rush that he describes. He creates it as a sense of fixation and even more so a kind of bonding with Maren over the idea of eating. When they have a discussion Chalamet conveys this certain exhilaration through his delivery and kind of this attempt to control the idea. Within it though there is as much real desperation about the urge even as he speaks of it in this seemingly positive way. He is able to express the lure in Lee toward his addiction, but also kind of the sense of self-delusion within it. As part of the relationship with Maren, we see the connection that also becomes a dependency between the two, as Lee becomes the seasoned addict in a way. And here is where for me Chalamet particularly excelled in a way that I have often been less convinced, that being in conveying an edge with actual intensity. Chalamet is great for example when the two are found by two other eaters who wear the creep on their sleeve, and Chalamet's eyes cut right through in the way Lee immediately identifies them as a potential danger in their life. Playing so well the scene as someone who has a familiarity with the dangers of life and knows how to maneuver around it. 

The other side of this "expertise" comes as Maren tasks with Lee a meal, where she says she's "hungry" almost as if she might as well say she needs to get high. So Lee goes basically both cruising as would a homosexual would in the 80s, which Chalamet plays rather brilliantly in showing the man essentially eyeing a jerk, eyeing a man, eyeing a fix, and eyeing prey. Chalamet manages to take on the idea of a predator and is convincing as such by blending the shades of typical reality with the added strange element of cannibalism. In turn, making the cannibalism strangely tangible. A great moment just before killing the victim is actually focused on Maren doubting, and Chalamet's breaths in the scene are great acting on their own as you sense suddenly the desperate need of the addict, even in the reassuring that there's nothing wrong with what they're doing as someone truly stuck within this terrible habit. Which after the fact, where they find the man had a family, Chalamet's great in the desperation in every inch of his being in trying to make excuses for their action and his "we got to do this" filled with more anxiety than conviction. The real anxiety of someone who knows he's addicted but desperately wants to not deal with that fact.  

The other side we do see of Lee is the brief moment early on when he goes back home, where he seems to stay away on purpose other than to visit his sister on occasion. I love Chalamet's manner in these moments in that he shows Lee to the most out going and really even loving, in his way of referring to his sister in making fun of ways, however with a sense of endearment and love towards her in every ounce of that. Chalamet shows that Lee absolutely loves his sister and that is pure within his manner. At the same time though Chalamet alludes within that so much frustration and a particular vulnerability towards her when questioning what he's doing and where he's been. Chalamet shows that in these moments Lee in a way is at his worst becuase she is part of where he is the most broken based on his relationship with his "missing" dad. Chalamet manages to convey the inherent drama behind it all so potently and directly of what in so many ways defines his pain. Speaking finally on the death of his father, who he ate because he was an abusive father and also a cannibal. Chalamet is great in how he delivers this description at first with a dismissive smile as something that doesn't bother him, but the more Maren presses Chalamet reveals just how much vulnerability and pain is in him. It is an incredibly powerful moment and just a great moment from Chalamet in revealing an essential truth about Lee. The longer it goes the more Chalamet shows the emotions bubble up, and it is incredibly performed in revealing all of what Lee has been holding in this entire time. Chalamet is so great in the scene with every little smile, as a defense that only stays for a moment between just how much anguish in every tear and breath that again reveals every bit of the pain in him. And in turn, what we see Lee really getting through this moment is from it successfully in the relationship with Maren, in which the more they spend time together the more convincing Russell and Chalamet are together. They are amazing together in that scene because of showing the way together they deal with Lee's pain. They are also wonderful with after a while how pure their connection feels and tangible it is with that as the culmination of it. And through that, they've successfully shown how this connection slowly moves away from their co-dependency to love. What's also great are the little flirtatious moments that build, the moments that seem of no importance, yet show such simple sincerity of their love. They earn it so beautifully and manage to make you genuinely care about two cannibals finding love in one another. A notion that should be entirely ridiculous yet feels truly heartfelt by the end of this. And I'll admit coming into this performance I had my doubts about that notion and about Chalamet's portrayal of such a character. But, he entirely convinced me otherwise, because as much as he delivers a charismatic off-beat energy to the role, what makes his work great is how much of it is just an honest portrait of a young man suffering from addiction and a painful life.