Wednesday, 2 May 2018

CALL ME BY YOUR NAME (2017)

Featuring: Armie Hammer; Timothee Chalamet; Michael Stuhlbarg

Director: Luca Guadagnino

If you are a traditionalist, an adrenaline junkie or a couch potato, this movie is not for you. However, if you like your movies to be challenging or even mess with your head a little, this one will be right up your alley. I regard myself as being pretty open-minded but it took me a little while to get to grips with this little gem. I mentioned once before that, for me, the hallmark of an exceptional film is in how low it stays with you afterwards. And believe me, this one lingers...

Elio (Timothee Chalamet in an Oscar nominated performance) is a bright seventeen year old spending the summer with his parents at their family's villa in Italy. Enters Oliver (Armie Hammer), an American archaeology intern to Elio's professor dad. And immediately their is a spark between the boy and the slightly older man. The thing is just neither of them is gay. So how are they going to deal with their undeniable attraction towards each other?

In typical European fashion the pace is slow with events that unfolds like a beautiful flower. The unfamiliar feeling of forbidden love the two main characters experience is one that many can identify with. But director Luca Guadagnino handles what is a very sensitive subject matter with pure taste and grace. This is coming-of-age at its best and worthy of the Oscar for Best Adaptive Screenplay it recieved.

I have no hesitation in giving it 4 out of 5 stars.

Trailer link:  

Director Luca Guadagnino (far right) with Armie Hammer and Timothee Chalamet

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