Timothée Chalamet tipped for Oscar for role based on legendary Jewish table tennis champion

Edward Norton and Timothée Chalamet in A Complete Unknown. (Photo: Macall Polay/ Searchlight Pictures)Macall Polay

The Standard has declared Chalamet a shoo-in for Academy success. In its five-star review, the outlet said: “The last major player to enter the arena smashes their way onto the Oscars podium with the brazen guile of a contender so high on their own myth that any [other films] couldn’t possibly stop them.” The review added that its “path to victory” was not down to the “muscular film-making”, but the performance of its lead actor, who spent six years practising table tennis to inhabit the role of Mauser.

“The result is a melt-the-screen-down-to-gold performance,” the Standard reviewer said. “With the steamroller audacity of his character, Chalamet has staked a massively confident claim for his first Oscar. If you must gamble, lay it all on Chalamet. Now.”

Timothée Chalamet, left, in the trailer for 'Marty Supreme'. (Photo: A24)[Missing Credit]

Empire magazine agreed that Chalamet’s performance is Oscar-worthy. In another five-star review, Empire said, “In a film of rousingly intense performances… the star is the standout... When Tears For Fears’ Everybody Wants To Rule The World plays on the soundtrack, you might recall that this is an actor who’s openly stated that he’s in ‘pursuit of greatness’ and desires to win an Oscar. This could be his moment.”

Rolling Stone magazine said the film brings out the best in both Chalamet and his director Safdie. “Both end up champions in their own way, and we’re the ones who end up winning,” said the publication, praising the actor’s performance as one that “feels like early Pacino or Dustin Hoffman, all twitches and vibrations and seeming like he’s in a constant state of motion even when standing still”.

In its five-star review, The Guardian called the film a “marvel” with “the fanatical energy of a 149-minute ping pong rally”. The review continued, “The film is itself ping pong; the rhythm and spirit of table tennis is in every scene and the mesmeric effect of the spectacular, clattering, dizzying back-and-forth. Marty Supreme is on its own spectrum of determination and emotional woundedness, and Chalamet hilariously enacts an unstoppable live-wire twitch, powered by indignation and self-pity.”

Meanwhile, The Independent praised the star’s “same irresistible, volatile energy that drove those early Al Pacino performances”. The outlet mused that Chalamet could understand his character’s “more fragile, sympathetic side”, and added, “Here’s a Jewish, working-class kid in the postwar era – in his own words, “Hitler’s nightmare” – born with something to prove and wounds to heal.”