Call Me by Your Name

Call Me By Your Name is the kind of movie that makes you sit through the credits with tears rolling down your face, staring blankly at the screen with a lump in your throat and tightness in your chest.

Call Me By Your Name is not a tragic movie. It's not a sad movie. It's not a pretentious movie. It's a movie about love, and love, and love. A beautiful love that will leave you longing to find your own love and drown in it.

Timothée Chalamet is an absolute force of nature. Elio will make you want to love, and hurt, and piece yourself back together with absolutely no regrets whatsoever. Elio will make you want to live your life to the fullest. Elio will make you want to break your own damn heart. It's so rare that a performance truly shows the depth of longing, and despair, and passion a character conveys through written words without the internal monologue. Timothée is truly a revelation and his last scene during the credits will have a lasting impact on everyone.

Armie Hammer is absolutely brilliant in the way he humanizes Oliver who is somewhat glorified through Elio's lens in the first part of the book. In the movie, Oliver is endearing and human and sexy and caring. He cares for Elio, and his love for him is so tender and so touching

Michael Stuhlbarg's monologue delivered nearing the end of the film is a complete masterpiece, and without a doubt that monologue with be taught and quoted for many years to come. A raw and beautiful scene.

Watch this movie. Watch it, and love it, and don't let it fall victim to over-hype. Watch this movie. Fall in love in two hours and twelve minutes, then question every single time you didn't allow yourself to feel just because you were afraid of getting hurt. Was avoiding a possible heartbreak that might have shattered you worth never getting a taste of the heavens? Was killing the potential pain and heartache worth it? Was it worth it?

Although I am a straight person, I loved this movie in all the ways. A beautiful, heart warming love story, makes me want to fall in love again again. This movie gives me the feeling that there is nothing more wonderful than falling in love for the first time. The cinematography, sound track, adopted screenplay is perfect. I personally loved the acting of Timothee Chalamet, wonderful. It makes me feel that being homo sexual is perfectly normal, there is nothing wrong about it, Absolutely perfect..

This film is pure sensuality and emotion. You can see through the character's eyes, taste through their mouths but most importantly you feel, by God how you feel. Luca Guadagnino manages to extract the very best out of his actors: Armie Hammer's performance shows unprecedented depth and Timothee Chalamet is the essence of awe inspiring acting, this film will land him an Oscar nomination at the very least.

First, to all the Americans on here outraged about the film "endorsing" a criminal act - NEWS FLASH!! Just because the age of consent is 18 in your country, doesn't make it so everywhere else in the world! 18 is comparatively old by global standards. I believe the average age is 16 (as in my country) and in Italy where the film takes place it's actually 14. Whether you agree with it morally or not, no criminal act takes place - US law does not apply!

However, I agree with many reviewers that Armie Hammer is miscast in terms of his character's age. He is 31 and looks it, whereas Oliver is meant to be 24. His age is never referred to in the film, so viewers who haven't read the book are left with the impression of a 30-ish man engaging in a relationship with a 17-year-old, which Timothee (20 at the time) does convincingly portray. I can fully understand how that would ring alarm bells for many. If they'd had an actor who actually looked 24 I think that would have created a very different dynamic. Even so, the relationship is hardly of a paedophilic nature. And I don't think most people would regard 17-year-olds as "children" physically and emotionally, even if they may be legally.

Timothee Chalamet gives an incredible performance fully deserving of all the accolades, but I found Armie's inconsistent at best. He does get better as the film goes along. Maybe it's just that I didn't find his character particularly appealing... to me he comes across as rather abrupt and arrogant, and weirdly passive-aggressive and patronising towards Elio for much of the time. The physical scenes between Oliver and Elio were excruciatingly awkward to watch and didn't ring true to me - but I'm a straight female so what would I know? I haven't had that reaction with the (admittedly few) other gay films I've seen though. Maybe it was supposed to reflect real life, or maybe I am just too accustomed to male-female depictions. Ultimately the relationship seemed to consist of Elio being infatuated and Oliver enjoying being the object of that infatuation, rather than a true love story.

Personally the relationship I found most touching in the film was that between Elio and his parents. Although they aren't given much to work with, both the actors playing his parents do beautiful, nuanced work... and the much-lauded scene near the end with his father was stunning and truly moving. It was refreshing to see a such a loving and accepting child-parent relationship, done in a natural and non-affected way. It rang very true to my own experience as an only child and it was nice to see this portrayed on film for once, instead of the tension-filled relationships American films usually depict.

Overall I thought the film was absorbing and well-done, but neither the masterpiece or great love story it's being hyped as.

Saw 'Call Me By Your Name' as someone trying to see as many films from 2017 as possible, because same sex love has been portrayed beautifully more than once and because it was one of the best received films of the year with a lot of award attention as we speak.

A distinction more than well deserved. 'Call Me By Your Name' is certainly one of my favourites of a pretty hit and miss 2017 (with some great films, bad films and films in between and near but not quite both extremes) and, like another gay love-themed film from 2017 'God's Own Country', one of the films of the year that really touched me. It is much more than just a "gay movie" and shouldn't be dismissed as just that, that on the most part it hasn't is a good thing.

'Call Me By Your Name' is most striking for its emotional impact. The erotic elements are tasteful and sensual, but it's the relationships that are even more beautifully done. The subject matter is handled with subtlety and surprising wit and the central relationship is tender and compassionate with a little tension. Just as, even more, impressive is the father and son relationship, which was sincere and touching, again with just as much burning intensity, and boasted the film's most powerful scene. The joy and pain of love and desire is portrayed in a way that really touched my soul and comes over as surprisingly relatable.

The acting is another big strength, advantaged by that the characters are interesting and not stereotypical with conflicts that are genuine and not predictable. Timothee Chalamet is especially remarkable and has a great future ahead of him if he continues in this direction. Armie Hammer is hardly inferior in perhaps his best performance to date, a very sympathetic performance which helps make the central relationship as powerful as it is. Michael Stuhlbarg also should be highlighted, a very wise and sincere performance and he has never been this poignant.

Luca Guadagnino directs beautifully, bringing the best out of his actors and the gorgeous scenery just as gorgeously shot. The sincerity, wisdom, compassion and wit of the source material is ideally captured in the script and as indicated the film looks great. The music has whimsy and understatement which suits the story perfectly, and while the pace is Merchant/Ivory-influenced-like deliberate it never felt dull to me due to being swept up in the emotion and being riveted by the writing and performances.

In conclusion, a beautiful film with much more to it than what it can easily be dismissed as. 10/10 Bethany Cox