Call Me By Your Name

Tropic Sprockets by Ian Brockway

[mr_rating_result]

Luca Guadagino is a patient and lyrical filmmaker known for his psychological character studies, tense emotional rhythms and exotic locations. His previous film “A Bigger Splash”(2015) detailed the self-destructions of a music promoter and his attachment to a glam rock musician, played by the inimitable Tilda Swinton.

Here with his latest film “Call Me By Your Name” Guadagino translates Andre Aciman’s striking novel into a mysterious and emotive cinematic story.

It is 1983. Graduate student Oliver (Armie Hammer) is visiting the home of Professor Perlman (Michael Stuhlbarg). Oliver temporarily occupies the room of Perman’s seventeen year old son Elio (Timothee Chalamet).

Elio, although intelligent beyond his years is in his own world never without a Walkman, a piano or a guitar. He is taken aback by the socially confident and glib visitor and doesn’t know what to make of him. Elio is jealous of his ease and labels him as arrogant.

When Elio sees him with the attractive Chiara (Victoire Du Bois) his jealousy increases to envy. To compensate for his unfulfillment, the boy starts a romance with the alluring Marzia (Esther Garrel).

But Oliver is invariably present in the background, subtly mocking him. It becomes impossible for Elio to shake free of Oliver’s influence,  romantically and otherwise.

The film unfolds very naturally in minute details and its small moments, both haunting and sweet, from the festive to the fearful have a flavor of Rene Clement’s “Purple Noon” or the work of Bernardo Bertolucci.

As in Guadagino’s previous film, the Italian landscape is once again central, its sensual curves symbolizing sex, its pushes and pulls. The Hellenic Greek statues that are seen in Perman’s study are solid vexations, reminders of the physical perfection that Elio covets.

Chalamet and Hammer give finely nuanced performances that are straight-forward, plainly delivered and never over-the-top. This is a romantic life as experienced by a young person and never once does it feel melodramatic, theatrical, harsh or forced.

This is a story that doesn’t shy away from the fickle sway of sex and attraction. Whimsy, mania, glee and some cruelty are all represented but rather than becoming tricks of drama, every moment is utterly real without pretense. The movie shows that sex is a universal pulse that is often capricious, regardless of your orientation or preference.

Although it possesses objective echoes of Highsmith or Camus (albeit without a literal homicide) “Call Me By Your Name” is one of the most human films you will ever see, full of visceral motion and circumstance.

Write Ian at ianfree2@yahoo.com