The Boy King

He could be our next great leading man-if he can figure out what kind he wants to be.

- ALISON WILLMORE

IT WAS Miss Stevens that convinced me Timothée Chalamet was going to be a movie star. I'd seen him onscreen before he had a recurring role in the second season of Homeland but Julia Hart's 2016 indie about a high-school drama competition was the first time I'd lingered through the credits to confirm his name. I had a feeling I'd be hearing it a lot.

He plays a kid named Billy, the most talented and most troubled of three students being chaperoned by the titular young teacher. At 19, Chalamet was able to put the childlike softness his face still had to great use, coming across as one of the adults or collapsing into boyishness. The movie withholds the sight of Billy performing until late, when he blows the roof off the auditorium with a monologue from Death of a Salesman. The material is comically mature for a teen, but when Chalamet directs his heavy-lidded gaze toward the camera, he doesn't look like a kid playing dress-up. His conviction leaves you as worried about Billy as you are impressed by him-he's not supposed to be able to relate to those themes of accrued disappointment so deeply. Not yet.