This week, tousle-haired man of the moment Timothée Chalamet will appear in Beautiful Boy, the story of a teenager who spirals into crystal meth addiction and his subsequent years of relapses.

Though its title could easily be a nod to Chalamet’s status as the millennial sex symbol du jour, Beautiful Boy really refers to his character Nic Scheff, the son his father “thought he knew inside and out” who he instead sees disappear before hie eyes.

preview for Beautiful Boy Trailer



That father in question is played by Steve Carell, who can feel a little wooden at times in a film that's had middling-to-good reviews. So - with so many great, Oscar-bothering releases out at this time of year, is Beautiful Boy worth your time?

In short the answer is yes, thanks to the aforementioned New Yorker who, once again in his brief but dazzling career, steals the show - and shows both the young man lost to addiction and the son his family are fighting to get back. It's another layered and compelling performance, almost as strong as his breakout role in Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name, the 2017 film that saw him become youngest actor to be nominated for the ‘Best Actor’ Oscar in 80 years.

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Francois Duhamel//StudioCanal
With Steve Carell in Beautiful Boy

Since playing Elio in Guadagnino’s summer romance - including that highly acclaimed four minute take of him silently crying - Chalamet has been lauded as Hollywood's preeminent 'one to watch'. His floppy hair has challenged the reign of short back and sides in male grooming, a swarm of Instagram accounts track his every move and Marie Claire runs a ‘This Week in Timothée Chalamet’ series. Great stylist, too.

It's not just playing characters who are more in touch with the modern masculine ideal than the debonair womanisers of yesteryear, though. Chalamet's measured and thoughtful manner has seen him heralded as a new kind of leading man off-screen, too.

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Sony Pictures Classics

When asked about his nomination for Call My Be Your Name, Chalamet told the Times what mattered to him was that “people came out because of that film” - and went on to speak about how important it was that Gerwig was nominated for Best Director for Ladybird.

In another interview with the New York Times he said about how lucky he felt to, “have an older sister who always pointed out the dynamics of what it’s like when a woman shares her ideas, how they’re received compared to men’s ideas” and how changing that is “our responsibility now — and our good fortune.”

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Universal
In Greta Gerwig’s 2017 coming-of-age film Ladybird

He was the the first high-profile male actor to speak out against Woody Allen, and did so before his Oscar nomination was even announced, hammering a nail in the coffin of the disgraced director's career ahead of many others whose future are far more secure than his own. More than paying lip service to movements toward equality, Chalamet has consistently shown how men can take a stand on issues and be a useful ally to other groups (see guys, it's not hard!)

Next week will see the announcement of the 2019 Oscar nominations and the Academy looks set to give him another nomination for his performance in Beautiful Boy. But even if he fails to secure one this time round, there's plenty more opportunities this year from his reunion with Greta Gerwig for Little Women to his role as Henry V in The King. Beyond that, the actor has been cast in Wes Anderson’s forthcoming France-set film about journalists, The French Dispatch and in Denis Villeneuve’s reboot of sci-fi classic, Dune.

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Francois Duhamel//StudioCanal
As Nick Scheff in Beautiful Boy

The pressure of revolutionising masculinity both on and off screen is obviously a lot to hang around the neck of one 23-year-old, but if the roles he picks and interviews he gives is any indication, Chalamet's more than up to the job. Or maybe it's just a case of showing other men in his position that it's a lot easier than they think.

'Beautiful Boy' is released 18 January