Checking in with ClubChalamet
A mid-season Awards Season review of what's good in cinema.
Shittiness is charming to me. Luxury is not. My idea of movie watching hell is one of those cinemas that takes your food order at your seat, and offers pouffy cushions for your feet.
Last week, a picture went viral on X of someone sat for a screening of Sentimental Value—the kind of film that commands the most absorbing cinematic experience. But this theater looked uncomfortable: neck ache viewing angle, seats crammed in, a fire escape in your direct eye line. It spurred a series of “you think that’s bad?” replies, including my personal favorite: one that closely resembled a trap room from the movie Saw.
I love a shitty theater sometimes. Here’s why:
Too-high screen = great for subtitles.
Overstuffed = cozy, which is preferable to intense air conditioning.
And while it’s nice to see a movie in a typically beautiful setting—Budapest’s National Movie Theater is so stunning it’s almost comical—sometimes that becomes the memorable experience.
People think I’m joking when I say that my favorite cinema in London is the Vue West End in Leicester Square, with its endless screens, £9.99 tickets, and Aspartame-filled DIY drink fountains. Everything there has this sterile, charmless feel to it, as if it’s the movie’s job to suck up the dead air and pump something fragrant and gorgeous back into the atmosphere instead. When the theater is the vibe, like that spot in Budapest, it means the movie in front of you gets an easier ride. Great movie watched in a bad theater? You know for sure that it’s got the sauce.
While other Hollywood A-listers spend their promotional cycles petting puppies and hitting up Las Culturistas, Timothée Chalamet is in the midst of reinventing the press cycle once again. Last year, his turn as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown inspired him to perform in character, create impromptu video shorts with his pal Aidan Zamiri, and Lime bike onto a red carpet. We’re back for round two with Marty Supreme. Ping-pong bobble heads, merch pop ups, and more.
I figured I’d ask the real heads for their thoughts on the matter: Is it an Oscar campaign? Or an ambitious attempt to bring the Original Blockbuster back? Or maybe a bit of both? Here’s what Timmy’s biggest fans had to say…
@batsdune (aka, the guy who’s seen Dune over 200 times):
“Probably getting people into the movie theater. Some of the best marketing in recent memory. Kind of crazy they’re able to get much buzz going for a ping pong movie.”
@ClubChalamet (who, like the best of us, is now on Substack!):
“I really think Timothée wants both: he’s very proud of Marty Supreme and he wants people to go see it, because he’s also a producer of this film. So he has more skin in the game beyond being just the lead actor. And as per his recent Vogue interview, he was disappointed that he didn’t win the Oscar for A Complete Unknown, as most of us were, and he has a taste for being even more close to winning the Oscar, and I think his work in Marty Supreme, along with the good will generated from his work in ACU, will help him win that Oscar for him. He’s not thirsty, he’s hungry to receive the highest acclaim for his craft which he has proven in his young years, several times over, to be well deserving to win.”
@timotheechalamt (aka Derek, who spent, like, a year wishing Timothée a good morning on Twitter, now X):
“I think it’s both, since the awards buzz [and stunts] make people who may not have heard of the film, or weren’t that interested until the reviews, seek it out.”
At Cannes Film Festival back in May, I saw Kristen Stewart’s inquisitive and ambitious first feature as a director, titled The Chronology of Water. Months later it’s still on my mind, so it’s very exciting that we get to run this lovely digital cover story, written by Ariel LeBeau, with both Stewart and her film’s lead star Imogen Poots. “I wanted this movie to feel like it was found in an attic,” Stewart told us, “something that felt stitched together.” Read it in full—and see Morgan Maher’s beautiful pictures—here.
Maya Jama—bonafide Brit icon, TV presenter, baddie—is known best for presenting Love Island. She’s so now I was interested about her thoughts on the not-now, so I asked her:
If you could have lived through any other era, when would that be, and what would you be doing?
“You know what, I don’t need to go back too far. Take me to 2004, but at the age I am now. I was only ten but living vicariously through MTV. I wanna dance to Kelis, Nelly and Usher in a club, wearing Timberlands with Versace and low-rise denim.”
Die hard Avatar heads can now book to see the third one, Fire and Ash, at 2:50 a.m. on opening weekend.
When you get this I’ll be in New York. I’m going to the Gotham Awards, to be in the same room as Jennifer Lawrence and Jacob Elordi, and to see my pal Jack Wolfe do Hadestown on Broadway. I’m doing a b2b with Ragtime at the Lincoln Center. Musical theater—is it cool again? I may have time for one more thing. What’s good?
Revisited The 1975’s Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships this past weekend. Still quite incredible imo!
Hamnet is also in US cinemas now. Go see it in the shittiest cinema possible—it will still make you cry.
On Timmy’s press tour, what is the difference between hunger and thirst, really?