Let me just say, again, because I haven’t said it yet this week so it’s only been three days since you’ve read it from me, that I consider Timothée Chalamet’s current Oscar campaign-non-campaign as one of the best, if not the best, of all time. Because it’s original. Because it doesn’t look like any Oscar campaign-non-campaign that we’ve ever seen. Some people don’t campaign at all, but Timmy’s not totally out of the game, and it’s not like he actually doesn’t want it. But the difference is, if he gets it, he’s going to do it not by prescription, not by sucking up to the old people, not by actively trying to counter what might be the biggest obstacle to him winning at this point in his career: his age. Timmy is not out here on the circuit acting like a 40-year-old. In fact, it’s been the opposite. He is not hesitating to be exactly his age, exactly his generation. 

 

This has been well documented for months, from the lookalike contest to the SNL to his livestream. In the last few days, it’s been “bro” this and “bro” that, every other word “bro” during his recent interview with Kendrick Lamar ahead of the Super Bowl; and extending his streak of refusing to wear a single suit during the press tour for A Complete Unknown, showing up in Gary Busey cosplay to receive his award at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival yesterday. 

 

You will note, he did not show up to the Critics’ Choice Awards last Friday, though he was nominated. Adrien Brody ended up winning Best Actor but the point is, this is a standard stop on the awards circuit and we’ve all seen the caravan of contenders travelling from one event to the other, not taking any chances and showing up whenever and wherever they can. Timmy though? A no show. Even though it’s been reported that he’s been making up ground on Adrien Brody in the Best Actor race, Timmy skipped it. 

 

For the Arlington Award in Santa Barbara, though? Well it’s definitely strategic since there were voters in the room last night, but even still, Timmy wasn’t super ass-kissy in their presence either. But he was present, present enough for a super long panel with Josh Brolin (almost two hours) during which Josh expressed his admiration for Timmy’s body of work, and also took the piss out of him for being a child. 

These two minutes are delightful, especially the end, when Josh calls Timmy out for not knowing a classic film. 

 

Like I said, he’s not up there feigning gravitas, quoting Bukowski, dumping on superhero movies – leave that to Jacob Elordi. Timmy knows Kai Cenat more than he knows Cocoon, he’s not pretending otherwise and he’s not sorry about that either. 

Then, when it came time for him to receive the award, like an eight-year-old who doesn’t know about urination time management, he needed a pee break. 

 

Any Oscar voter out there who thinks he’s too young for Oscar, and the Oscars do not award young men, only young women, is not going to be swayed by any of this, LOL. If anything it might entrench their position even more. But this is why Timmy is so entertaining right now (and probably always) – he doesn’t give a sh-t. Like I said, if he’s going to be Gen Z’s Oscar winner, he’s not going to get there by appealing to the boomers. 

Also, yes, Kylie Jenner was there. She was sat with him in the audience and at one point was seen rubbing his back. 

 

I wonder if she’ll be sitting with him at the Oscars. They might not walk the carpet, but he does get a plus one.