The exploration of love, sexuality, desire, art, and music are just a few of the things that "Call Me By Your Name" discusses, without making everything feel overboard in Luca Guadagnino’s epic tale of an aspiring gay romance in 1980s Italy.
An initial attraction of finding one’s first love can be over exaggerated when being portrayed in feature films and there is something about this film that does it so uniquely that it leaves the audience in awe. That looked to be the case with "Call Me By Your Name," which happened to be one of the buzziest films of 2017 and remained to hold that title since January after it’s world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.
A combination of coming-of-age and romance can be formulaic and throw audiences off, yet this works to becoming one of the top contenders of the 21st century.
Based on André Aciman’s 2007 novel of the same name, 17-year-old Elio (Timothée Chalamet) is the son of an archaeology professor (Michael Stuhlbarg, the film’s standout) that hires a 24-year-old American student named Oliver (Armie Hammer) as his assistant for the summer.
When "Call Me By Your Name" begins, Elio is questioning himself—especially as Oliver arrives in the picture while finding ways to focus on his on-and-off girlfriend, music transcriptions and reading. Oliver, on the other hand, finds his confidence riding himself toward justice during his six-week-long adventure in Italy and strikes an immediate connection with Elio’s parents.
Soon, a smooth transition occurs and the two gentlemen begin to grow a bond towards one another - one that neither was ever expecting.
Clocking in at 132 minutes, the film finds a meticulous matter of feeling less like a period piece, but more of a timely story set in a different time. Screenwriter James Ivory mirrors what Richard Linklater had brought to life in his Before trilogy and while this is an American film - "Call Me By Your Name" has the subtlety of presenting itself as a foreign film too.
It felt like a love letter to Italy and its breathtaking culture, which leads to the atmosphere of Northern Italy in 1983 being a character of its own merits. The usage of anything Italian-related was genuine and it leaves the audience showing how respectful Guadagnino and Ivory wanted to be towards it. The appreciation should also be credited to the gorgeous songs written and performed by Sufjan Stevens and the soundtrack itself, mixing popular songs from the 1980s and classical compositions.
Chalamet is a star in the making, following his terrific supporting performance in Greta Gerwig’s "Lady Bird" and he brings a lot of range to the screen that is lacking from a majority of actors in his age group. His portrayal of Elio is phenomenal and it is one of the best performances of the decade—one that people will not stop talking about for years down the road. Hammer gives his best performance since "The Social Network" and while his casting might not have been the ideal choice for Oliver, he still brought his A-game here.
The chemistry between the two lead actors is up there with some of the best in any romance film of any decade. But the heart-and-soul of "Call Me By Your Name" rests on the shoulders of Stuhlbarg, who has proven to be one of the best character actors working in the industry and that 2017 was the pivotal year of his career. The charm and sincerity that Stuhlbarg brings to Mr. Perlman makes for one of 2017’s more memorable performances, which includes an incredible monologue towards the end of the film that will leave you in tears. When working with Guadagnino, Guillermo Del Toro, and Steven Spielberg in the same year: that makes for an outstanding group of work.
There are a lot of audiences that may look at "Call Me By Your Name" as ‘pretentious garbage’ and while that may be in the case in the eyes of some people, no one can ignore the amount of passion that Guadagnino and his team put into adapting an acclaim novel into one of the best-reviewed films in recent memory.
It may be overbearingly long and while it certainly didn’t have to be, it managed to still be a compelling and realistic romance that can resonate with anyone—whether it’d be one just finding their first love or one that has had many experiences in that department. The acting, writing and direction are handled terrifically and everything else in the technical department was strongly utilized too. It is a beautiful film and it is one that won’t be ignored for the next couple of years.
