Call Me By Your Name-2017
Director Luca Guadagnino
Starring Timothée Chalamet, Armie Hammer
Scott’s Review #708
Reviewed December 27, 2017
Grade: A
Call Me by Your Name (2017) is a gorgeous film. It is simply beautiful in story-telling, cinematography, and acting.
A humanistic film that crafts a lovely tale of young love, friendship, and emotions, that is breathtaking to experience.
In fact, in the LGBT category, I would venture to proclaim that this film is groundbreaking. It leaves behind any tried-and-true homophobic elements and instead tells a good story that is fresh, sincere, and simply flawless.
The period is in the summer of 1983, and the landscape is the beautiful Italian Riviera.
Seventeen-year-old Italian-American Elio (Timothée Chalamet) dreams of spending the summer away living with his affluent parents in a small village. His world is rich with culture and learning—his father (Michael Stuhlbarg) is a professor, and his mother is a translator.
A brilliant student, Elio wiles away the days reading, playing music, and flirting with girlfriend Marzia.
When a handsome, twenty-four-year-old American student, Oliver (Armie Hammer), arrives for a six-week stay assisting Elio’s father on a project, desire and first love blossom between the young men as they struggle with their burgeoning relationship.
Directed by Luca Guadagnino, who has also directed the lovely 2009 film, I Am Love, is a man known for stories of desire in small Italian villages.
Call Me By Your Name is the third in a trilogy, I Am Love and 2015’s A Bigger Splash being the others.
The setting is incredibly important to the story, as both the summer heat and the world of the intellectual scholars are nestled into a grand shell of culture. The philosophical nature of the story is palpable—the film just oozes with smarts and sophistication.
By 2017, the LGBT genre has become populated with films in the romantic, drama, and comedy sub-genres, but many use the standard homophobic slant to elicit drama and conflict.
Not to diminish the importance of homophobic discussions to teach viewers, Call Me By Your Name stands alone in that homophobia is not an issue in this story.
Given the time of 1983, this may be surprising—at the very cusp of the AIDS epidemic, this topic is also not discussed—rather, the subject matter is simply a love story between two males and the coming-of-age story that their love expresses.
The film is quite moving; Elio and Oliver are characters filled with texture and raw emotion. Oliver is confident, charismatic and a great catch for any lucky young lady in the village.
Hammer fills the role with poise and humanity.
Chalamet, a beautiful young man, gives the complex role his all as so much can be conveyed not by dialogue, but by expressions on the actor’s face.
As Oliver slow dances with a local girl, the wounded look that Chalamet reveals, his eyes welling up with tears, is heartbreaking. Seventeen is a tough age for most young men, but when coming to terms with one’s sexuality it can be excruciating.
The final scene is poignant as it features at least a five-minute-long scene of gazing into the eyes of Chalamet, and many emotions are expressed in this sequence.
Enough credit cannot be given to Stuhlbarg as Elio’s father, as he gave one of the best speeches ever performed in film history. The actor gives a subtle and poignant performance as the sympathetic and knowing father.
His speech of understanding and warmth is riveting and inspirational—to be cherished. Mr. Perlman is a role model to fathers everywhere and the ideal parent for any gay son.
One scene that could stir controversy is the sure-to-be-controversial “peach scene”. Involving an innocent peach used during a sex act, the scene is erotic and borders on “icky”, but is also vital to foster the connection between Oliver and Elio.
Another potential risk to the film is that Oliver is twenty-four and Elio is seventeen, meaning that Elio is underage. However, the film never portrays Oliver as more of an aggressor, and the relationship remains tender and consensual.
Call Me By Your Name (2017) is not just a great LGBT film but a film for the ages. Beautifully crafted with gorgeous landscapes and nuanced, powerful acting, the sequences are subtle and carefully paced.
The film is simply a treasure.
Oscar Nominations: 1 win-Best Picture, Best Actor-Timothée Chalamet, Best Adapted Screenplay (won), Best Original Song-“Mystery of Love”
Independent Spirit Award Nominations: 2 wins-Best Feature, Best Director-Luca Guadagnino, Best Male Lead-Timothée Chalamet (won), Best Supporting Male-Armie Hammer, Best Cinematography (won), Best Editing