Timothee Chalamet at 18 plays a charismatic sign spinner in a short film by Erik Barnes

The 2014 short film “Spinners”, directed by Erik L. Barnes based on his own short story, written with Cami Delavigne, features an 18-year-old Timothee Chalamet working as a sign spinner, “Jace”, with pal Derek (Ify Nwadiwe), in an economically depressed town in the California Central Valley, on the edge of the desert.

A single mom with a small girl comes by.  The two men try to do a business transaction.  The mother has handguns in the car trunk and the girl finds them.  Things go wrong.

  

Yet Jace seems up to the challenge.  He certainly tries to do what he can to get the gun taken out of play.  His personality in the film is rather assertive, yet in one scene a passing bully seems to call him a “fag”. 

I believe Chalamet really does play piano pretty well.  I wonder if he could try one of my sonatas. 

Picture: 2012, mine (near Bishop CA on US 395).