Review of Call Me by Your Name (2017) by Djuliana — 13 Dec 2017

More than just a movie, Call Me By Your Name is an experience. It's immersive, inviting you into this gorgeous Italian summer and truly putting you in these characters' shoes, with an empathy not many movies are able to evoke. There is a perfect balance between realism and idealization. It plays like a memory you hold very dear and romanticize, which very much captures the book's feel. The performances are subtle and the characters feel incredibly real, but there's also a dream-like quality to the entire thing that makes it a truly delicious watch. Speaking of the performances, Armie Hammer is incredible Oliver, a character who could've easily been one-note. Oliver's a confident, sometimes borderline rude American grad student who is given no backstory or depth in the book, as we know him only from Elio's point of view, but Hammer's understated performance gives the character a vulnerability that makes you see right through him and understand him without being offered any information at all. Michael Stuhlbarg is also great as professor Perlman, delivering a speech that is in a way a more tender and intimate version of Spencer Tracy's in Guess Who's Coming To Dinner. But even though the entire ensamble delivers, it's Timothée Chalamet's performance that truly makes the movie. In his breakout role as Elio, he delivers what is without doubt one of the strongest performances of the year, if not the single best one. It's him who could make or break the movie, and his portrayal of this intelligent, strange, vulnerable young man is one that crackles with life and elevates this movie to a masterpiece. He's a joy to watch, and his Elio is a fully realized person you feel you truly know by the time the credits role -- or maybe even more *while* the credits are rolling, as a gorgeously haunting original song by Sufjan Stevens plays.

All in all, this movie is deserving of every word of praise it's been getting, and it does an incredible job at portraying real people bringing a beloved book to life.