Call me By Your Name (2017)
Directed by Luca Guadagnino
Written by James Ivory
Starring Armie Hammer, Timothee Chalamet, Michael Stuhlbarg, Amina Casar
Release Date November 24th, 2017
Luca Guadagnino is the poet of idle sexuality. His A Bigger Splash captured the sadness and tragedy of lost love while barely raising its pulse above that of the luxurious, idyllic location, a beachfront European coast where clocks don’t seem to exist. Yes, that film has a tragedy in it that drives the engine of the plot but Guadagnino’s interest lies not with exploring that tragedy but in lingering within the lives of people whose path is toward tragedy, but not a journey defined by that tragedy.
Guadagnino’s latest movie, Call Me By Your Name, appears to be on the same path as A Bigger Splash but has more ambition. Call Me By Your Name is a coming of age romance that mirrors the setting of A Bigger Splash, Guadagnino’s home country of Italy, but the film eschews the notion of a typical narrative aiming toward a conclusion that ties the narrative in a fashion that resembles a movie ending.
Call Me By Your Name stars Timothee Chalamet as Elio, the son of Academics, Lyle and Annella Perlman (Michael Stuhlbarg and Amira Casar). Elio’s life is made up of long swims, hikes, brief encounters with Marzia (Esther Garrel), his would be girlfriend, and the hours he spends listening to classical music and writing out the notes he hears in longhand, one of the more unique hobbies I’ve seen in a film character.
Elio’s teenage Idyll is upended by the arrival of his father’s grad-student assistant Oliver (Army Hammer). Oliver has taken over Elio’s bedroom and immediately begins to invade his thoughts. For the first time in his young life, Elio is looking at a man sexually and it creates an immediate tension between he and Oliver whose attempts at being friendly to Elio only seem to complicate matters further.
Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal
