Call Me By Your Name ‘review’

Rating: 8/10

To keep it short and sweet: it’s a beautiful film with a very sweet and heartbreaking story.

“Call me by your name and I’ll call you by mine.” – Oliver

** spoilers **
2017
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Cast: Armie Hammer, Timothée Chalamet, Michael Stuhlbarg, etc…
Length: 2h 12min
Genre: Drama

I’m not even going to try to summarize this film when IMDb has such a beautiful description: In Northern Italy in 1983, seventeen-year-old Elio begins a relationship with visiting Oliver, his father’s research assistant, with whom he bonds over his emerging sexuality, their Jewish heritage, and the beguiling Italian landscape.

This film should be a mandatory watch. It gets explicit without being explicit. Elio is seventeen and starts to explore sex. Add to that his sexuality and how he comes to terms with that.

Call me by your name clocks in at 2h and 12min. For the first watch, it was a bit too long in my opinion as the movie is extremely slow paced. But that is easily forgiven by the stunning photography, the backdrop that is Italy (I really want to get to Northern Italy now) and the incredible chemistry between Hammer and Chalamet. When the two of them finally get together, like really get together, it was so earned at that point in the film. Don’t confuse slow paced with boring though! I’ve just seen it a second time and it’s not nearly as slow and the film should have lasted longer! Definitely, give it another watch if you weren’t sure the first time.

Although I am a fan of the ending (spoiler alert: it’s not happy, but happy in a way), I kind of wished Elio’s father wasn’t gay. It provided an incredibly beautiful and touching father-son moment, don’t get me wrong. The level of understanding his father has, it’s a true goosebump moment. But I wonder how it would have been if his father wasn’t gay. If he didn’t share that same understanding but was unquestionably supportive of his son. Incredible performance by Michael Stuhlbarg. I almost didn’t recognize him as Dr. Robert Hoffstetler in the Shape of Water 😀

Armie Hammer is just an Adonis. Tall, blond and handsome. I’d only seen him act in Mirror Mirror and the Social Network in which he showed strong acting skills, but this might be next level. As for Timothée Chalamet, never heard of the guy before and now he is in two Oscar-nominated films: this one and Lady Bird! But as it turns out, Timothée starred in Interstellar (another Oscar topper) and Christmas with the Cooper’s. Who knew? He’s quickly becoming one of my favourite actors! And in all honesty, if you haven’t developed a crush on either of these guys or both, I’m not sure I can trust you x)

The score/soundtrack is incredible. My favorite has to be Mystery of Love. And that was before I knew the song was nominated for an Academy Award for Original Song. From the song This is Me from the Greatest Showman, I didn’t expect anything less. But the fact that Mystery of Love managed to catch my attention… It’s just that beautiful.

Oh, and I can’t believe they’ve added an American Pie moment. Not American Pie style, but unwillingly I made the connection. Not sure I’ll ever be able to look at apricots ever again x)

It’s a coming of age movie as any other coming of age movie: friends, exploring sex and sexuality,… But it’s definitely not your regular coming of age film. This film is exactly what the world needed. And now I’m going to book me a flight to Northern Italy.

I definitely recommend it!!

That is it for this ‘review’ 🙂 Curious for more? Feel free to click through 😉

Trailer