Call Me by Your Name is Sensual and Immersive.

Overview:

During the 1980s in Northern Italy, a romance between a seventeen-year-old student and an older man blossoms, while on vacation in the summer.

Initial Thoughts:

This film has a very sensual feel to it. Director, Luca Guadagnino, has a way of making you feel every sensation that our characters feel throughout this film. The film takes place in the summer and we hear birds chirping and the wind blowing in the background of outside scenes. When the audience needs to feel something from our characters eating dinner to sexually charged moments between our two leads, Guadagnino portrays this in a very effortless way.

The film follows Tomthée Chalamet as Elio. Elio’s father is college professor and invites one of his students, Armie Hammer’s Oliver, to spend a summer with him and his family in Italy. While on vacation Oliver and Elio spark a romantic relationship and, become sexually involved with each other with this inevitable end of summer looming over them. The romance in this film feels very natural and passive. Like, yeah we know that summer doesn’t last forever but they, Elio and Oliver, don’t care so why should we? That is a rhetorical question. We want to see our characters get the satisfaction they crave from each other before summer ends. The film does a good job of making you feel like you’re spending a summer with these characters and seeing their feelings develop over the course of a a few months. The sensual nature of this film is totally appropriate given the subject matter and I feel like Guadagnino uses the setting and its characters to their fullest potential.

Characters/Performances:

Timothée Chalamet as Elio: Chalamet plays the son of a college professor that invites one of his students to spend a summer with his family. The film wants you to know that Elio is a minor, we get a sense that Elio is accustomed to the lavish lifestyle that his parents are able to provide for him. Elio is a teenager struggling to find his sexual identity. This is seen when the film tells us that he has a frequent fling with an Italian girl every summer. Elio is very mature for his age and is seen smoking cigarettes throughout the film. Chalamet gives a very emotionally charged performance, as his character is a developing teenager. If the script calls for the audience to feel for Elio Chalamet is a proficient actor for this role. Elio’s summer is an emotional rollercoaster as he is struggling with his sexual identity, trying to hide his secret affair from his parents, and breaking up with his summertime fling. Chalamet makes you feel for this character and has experience with taking on emotional roles with his work in the Amazon Prime original Beautiful Boy.

Armie Hammer as Oliver: Hammer plays Oliver, a college student invited to spend a summer with his professor and his family. Hammer is clearly older than Chalamet, therefore he has an experienced demeanor in comparison to Oliver. Hammer is very relaxed and seems comfortable in this role. Oliver treats the relationship in this film like its a casual hookup. This is a stark contrast to Elio who seems very invested physically and emotionally in pleasing Oliver.

Final Thoughts:

This film is very elegant in the way it plays on the five senses. Every little thing seems intentional and individual. The film doesn’t take full advantage of the 80s setting since our characters are hardly seen using any technology from that time. The most we get from the 80s aesthetic is the model of cars and background music in a club scene. Call Me by Your Name feels very natural with its narrative and seems more interested in telling a compelling story. Hammer and Chalamet give career defining performances and this film is worth its 2 hour and 12 minute runtime.

Rate:

A-