Call Me By Your Name, directed by Luca Guadagnino, is a stylish exploration of the blossoming of love between two men; based on Andre Aciman’s novel of the same name. The film follows Elio, a Jewish teen living in Northern Italy with his parents, who finds himself grappling with feelings for Oliver, his father’s graduate student who stays with the family for the summer. The movie, starring relative newcomer Timothée Chalamet and The Social Network’s Armie Hammer, has been a frontrunner for the Best Picture Oscar since its debut at Sundance – although recent award losses may have pushed the feature out of the running.
This is a beautifully directed film. The vibrancy of the colour palette and the focus on Italy’s natural scenery made me want to book a plane ticket immediately; with the intensity of the setting being the perfect accompaniment to the passionate love between the two men. This was the first Guadagnino movie I had seen and I was transfixed by his eye for style and just how breathtakingly stunning each shot was. He treated the narrative with such respect and created a great sense of intimacy between the actors and the audience through the film’s resolve to savour each moment, enhancing the movie’s emotionality. The last sequence of the film (SPOILER – where Elio cries for a helluva long time as the credits roll) is one of the most experimental things I have ever seen on screen and only succeeds due to the emotional investment that Guadagnino persuaded us viewers to have.
The story itself is also wonderful and SPOILERS (sorry!) I was pleasantly surprised by the warm acceptance of Elio’s love for Oliver by his father. Similar narratives have tended to exploit this Romeo and Juliet star-crossed lovers cliche to dramatise gay relationships, but I loved the way that this movie allowed the audience to appreciate their affair for what it was and to level the playing field between their romance and your typical boy-meets-girl relationship. The only complaint I have about this film is the overreliance on sexual intimacy, as the frequency of the sexual scenes between the two in the second half of the film slow the pace to an almost mundane level. While this should definitely have played a major role in the film, I think the film still should have been deepening their emotional connection throughout the second half rather than their physical one. The film strayed a little bit into too-long territory (before finishing with some truly brilliant scenes) as the excitement of the affair began to dwindle after the two actually got together.
The film would not work without the performances of the two leads. Chalamet’s charisma practically jumps off the screen and he plays Elio with such fearlessness and youth that it is impossible to not become drawn in by him. Hammer is an actor that I have found in the past to be a bit wooden (I’m sorry!) but he established Oliver as the strong and worldly older man that could act as the foil to Elio’s hyperactivity. The two also played the contradictory nuances of their characters phenomenally well, as Hammer was able to exude confidence and playfulness when necessary as Chalamet delve into Elio’s bursts of terror and insecurity. Michael Stuhlbarg and Amira Casar don’t get a whole lot to do in this movie as Elio’s parents, but Stuhlbarg’s monologue towards the film’s end is a heartwrenching moment that was deftly handled by the actor.
Overall, this film presents itself as a masterpiece and that is a title that I am happy to give it. The depth of the relationship between the two characters is palpable, with the direction and the performances making for one of cinema’s greatest love stories.
I’m giving this film 4.5/5 popcorns.
Girl with the Popcorn 