Movie Review Call Me By Your Name

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 

Movie Review Bones and All

Bones and All (2022) 

Directed by Luca Guadagnino 

Written by David Kajganich 

Starring Taylor Russell, Timothee Chalamet, Mark Rylance, Michael Stuhlbarg 

Release Date November 18th, 2022 

Published November 28th, 2022 

Cannibalism, eating people. Bones and All follows a small subset of people who are cannibals but not by choice. Maren Yearly (Taylor Russell) was born a cannibal and, as we come to find out, she can't control this desire. Her father helped her manage it for a while and even kept her from realizing her true nature for a time. However, after she snacks on a friend from school, biting off her finger, Dad can't keep her hidden anymore and he's not sure that he should. After bundling her up and setting her up in a new home, he disappears. 

Left on her own, Maren has only a few dollars and a tape that her father made explaining the things that have happened that led to him leaving. He also pointed her in the direction of where her mother may be, somewhere in Minnesota. The film is set in the 1980s so no cellphones or internet, and this is a strong choice as a cellphone and internet access would undoubtedly undermine much of Bones and All. Maren's isolation and the few fellow cannibals she's able to meet in person would be less meaningful if she could join a supportive cannibal community on Facebook. 

The first cannibal that Maren meets is a true creep. Sully (Mark Rylance), upon meeting Maren, claims that he could smell her from more than a block away. The movie eventually explains that all cannibals are capable of smelling each other but it is an effectively creepy way to introduce Sully, who also talks about himself in the third person. Mark Rylance is an effective horror movie character. He suggests an art-house take on Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2's Chop Top. 

Maren does end up spending a night at a house that Sully has staked out. It happens to be the home of an elderly woman who is slowly dying on the floor of her upstairs bedroom while Sully is preparing game hens for dinner. He tells Maren that he feeds on people who he knows are dying, though that is an unsurprising lie. The two share a meal together, if you know what I mean, and then Maren runs off, frightened by Sully's creepy vibe. He's not gone though, unfortunately. 

At the next stop of her journey toward Minnesota and the mother she has never known, Maren meets Lee (Timothee Chalamet) after he disposes of a jerk at a store, and covers for her while she shoplifts. Maren uses her newfound sense of smell to determine that Lee is also a cannibal and since they are close in age, Maren feels comfortable getting to know him. This begins a tentative romance, though one troubled by their equal need to feed on human flesh. 

I am not sure I understand the point of Bones and All. The film has elements of a horror movie but it isn't scary. The film appears to be aimed as a teen romance but the romance is rather tepid. I can see the artfulness in the direction of Luca Guadagnino, he's a tremendous director. The production design, the evocation of the past without leaning too heavily on obvious signifiers, demonstrate his talent for time and place in his work. 

Click here for my full length review of Bones and All at Geeks.Media. 

Movie Review: A Serious Man

A Serious Man (2009) 

Directed by The Coen Brothers 

Written by The Coen Brothers 

Starring Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Kind, Fred Melamed

Release Date November 6th, 2009 

Published November 4th, 2009 

Are the Coen Brothers making movies or conducting symphonies of word and image? On the basic level, of course they are movies. However, to the observant filmgoer, one truly engaged in the work of the Coen's, the symphony unfolds before them in remarkable movements that occur and recur over and over all the while deepening and expanding. It is a wonder to behold and in their latest masterpiece, “A Serious Man,” it is oddly, wonderfully exhilarating.

Ostensibly, we are watching a story about a put upon sad sack professor named Larry Gopnick. Poor Larry is stuck in a loveless marriage, could be on the verge of losing his job, has a pair of vile teen children, a lay about his brother and a pair of neighbors each offering their own trouble.

From a linear perspective we watch as Larry seeks the advice of local religious leaders, five different Rabbis from his local synagogue. Four of the Rabbis offer quizzical expressions of support, the 5th refuses to see Larry for reasons that never become clear. Again, that is from a linear perspective. Taken from a more abstract perspective each scene in “A Serious Man” offers dialogue that rises and falls, repeats and remits, furthers the story but doesn't. Moving the story along isn't so much the purpose as presenting dialogue and image that will eventually coalesce to an outlandish but highly effective crescendo.

Though the soundtrack bubbles with 70's rock standards from Hendrix to Santana to a special focus on Jefferson Airplane, the true musical expression of “A Serious Man” is as a symphony, a 104 minute epic symphony rising and falling, quiet then suddenly uproarious. It's a stunningly complex rhythm that few other filmmakers could match or even attempt.

The rhythm of a Coen Brothers movie requires an actor who can without question give himself over to the Coen style. Broadway veteran Michael Stuhlbarg does just that finding the perfect pitch for Larry Gopnick. Never over-playing Larry’s sadness while nailing his general apoplexy, Stuhlbarg captures the complexity of the Coen’s script while making Larry a simple, Jewish everyman whose life is suddenly one bad turn after another.

Much has been made of the Jewish aspect of “A Serious Man.” I cannot speak to the authenticity of how the faith is portrayed. I can tell you that Larry is a faithful man who even in his darkest moments, even as Rabbis repeatedly offer him little to know comfort from his problems, never turns against his faith. Judaism like everything else in “A Serious Man” is one of many repeated verses. It rises and falls on the Coen’s masterful melody.

For those who are not fans of the Coen Brothers, those who haven’t pored over the catalogue as I have and seen each film on multiple occasions, you may need to see “A Simple Man” more than once to get what I am talking about here. Fans of the Coens however, will absolutely flip for this coalescence of the Coen’s style into its most pure form.

“A Serious Man” is the synthesis of a style the Coen’s have cultivated since “Raising Arizona.” It’s a style they nearly perfected in “The Big Lebowski.” Listen to the dialogue, the ways in which it repeats throughout the film is intentional and each line is part of a bigger whole that won’t come clear right away. It’s not the lines themselves, taken individually they may be quite ordinary lines, but as they are reprised they blend into a whole that is very much like music.

Oh what wonderful music it is. “A Serious Man” is a symphony that works on multiple levels, a hypnotic rhythm, elegant reprises, humorous rises, dramatic falls, all the way to a biblical crescendo that, abrupt as it is, is really the only way it could end. “A Serious Man” is the best film of 2009.