Timothée Chalamet’s Top-Rated Film Isn’t Dune or Marty Supreme

Timothée Chalamet’s recent performance in Marty Supreme has been met with widespread acclaim, with many describing it as a career highlight. His portrayal of Marty Mauser currently stands as his second most highly rated film, boasting a 95% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Yet, an earlier project from eight years ago has quietly maintained an even more impressive 99% rating, making it his best-reviewed work to date.

Lady Bird: A Standout in Chalamet’s Career

The coming-of-age comedy drama Lady Bird marked one of the earliest successes for director Greta Gerwig. Some critics have even suggested that Gerwig’s later blockbuster, Barbie, did not quite reach the heights of this 2017 release. The film’s script and direction were widely celebrated, cementing Gerwig’s reputation as a filmmaker of note.

Saoirse Ronan led the ensemble, playing a sixth form student navigating a complicated relationship with her mother. Alongside Ronan and Chalamet, the cast featured Laurie Metcalf, Tracy Letts, Lucas Hedges, Beanie Feldstein, Stephen McKinley Henderson, and Lois Smith. The Rotten Tomatoes consensus summed up the film’s appeal:

Lady Bird delivers fresh insights about the turmoil of adolescence and reveals debuting writer-director Greta Gerwig as a fully formed filmmaking talent.

Produced on a modest $10 million budget, the film went on to earn $79 million at the box office, becoming distributor A24’s highest-grossing title at the time. At the 90th Academy Awards, Lady Bird received five nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actress for Ronan, Best Supporting Actress for Metcalf, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Director for Gerwig. Despite the strong showing, it failed to secure a win in any category, which was seen as a significant letdown by many observers.

Chalamet’s Filmography: Critical Highs and Lows

Although Chalamet’s part in Lady Bird is not as central as in some of his other acclaimed films, it demonstrates his knack for choosing strong collaborators and scripts. He later worked with Gerwig again on Little Women (2019), which also holds a 95% rating, matching Marty Supreme.

Among Chalamet’s most celebrated works, Lady Bird leads the pack, followed by Marty Supreme, Little Women, and Call Me By Your Name—all with a 95% Rotten Tomatoes score. His more recent releases, including Dune: Part II and A Complete Unknown, have also performed well, with the second Dune instalment rated higher than the first (92% versus 83%). Other notable entries such as Wonka, Bones and All, and A Complete Unknown each hold an 82% rating.

Surprisingly, Interstellar appears lower on the list with a 73% critical score. At the other end of the spectrum, Chalamet’s least successful films include Don’t Look Up (56%), A Rainy Day in New York (47%), One & Two (47%), and Love the Coopers (19%).

Marty Supreme: A New Benchmark for Chalamet

Marty Supreme has been described as a defining moment in Chalamet’s career, currently holding an IMDb score of 8. The Rotten Tomatoes summary reads:

Serving up Timothée Chalamet at his most infectiously charismatic, Marty Supreme is a propulsive epic that realises its sky-high aspirations even while it critiques its indelible hero’s toxic ambition.

Ramin Setoodeh, co-editor-in-chief at Variety, commented, “Marty Supreme is Uncut Gems meets The Catcher in the Rye meets Jerry Maguire, carried by Timothée Chalamet’s best performance yet.” David Canfield of The Hollywood Reporter added, “Timothée Chalamet’s career-best performance—he was born to play this guy.”

Chalamet himself has spoken about his dedication to his craft, stating in a recent interview,

This is probably my best performance, and it’s been like seven, eight years that I feel like I’ve been handing in really, really committed, top-of-the-line performances. And it’s important to say out loud because the discipline and the work ethic I’m bringing to these things, I don’t want people to take for granted. I don’t want to take for granted. This is really some top-level sh*t.

The film enjoyed a remarkable limited release, reportedly achieving the highest per-theatre average gross in nearly a decade, with $875,000 earned from just six cinemas over its opening weekend.

Lady Bird is currently available to stream on Cinemax.