Call Me By Your Name

"Nature has cunning ways of finding our weakest spot."

Filmology Rating: 3 out of 4

Your first young love is always a heartbreaking situation, one moment you feel like you can conquer the world and the next you feel like your entire world is coming to an end.  It’s a situation that we all deal with and hopefully empathize with.  Call Me By Your Name is yet another story of young love that shows that you should never shut yourself off to the world, no matter how much your heart might ache.

Oliver, played by Armie Hammer, arrives at the Perlman estate in 1983 Italy to complete his college work with Professor Perlman, played by Michael Stuhlbarg.  Perlman has a son Ello, played by Timothée Chalamet, who is aimlessly meandering his way through the summer.  Ello quickly develops an infatuation for Oliver but finds himself experiencing a cold shoulder when he tries to pursue his desire.  

As someone who at one point in time had a more naive and innocent view of love but who has become bitter about it, I couldn’t help but be cautious and honestly doubtful towards the feelings that Armie Hammer claimed to be feeling towards Timothée Chalamet.  During many scenes I thought he was a lion hunting his prey and I feared for Chalamet who is completely ignorant to most of the world around him.  However, once the film ended I realized that I was mistaken and bringing my own life experiences into the film with me gave Hammer a far more malevolent attitude than he actually had in the film.  A scene takes place around one of the statues in the city and it truly feels like a ballet, each step by the actors being carefully crafted and throughout to make the most impact that they possibly can.  The film features many scenes like that, too many in fact where the film starts to feel overly calculated.

Most of Call Me By Your Name tries to hypnotize you into a trance of mellowness, from the long takes given by cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom.  Mukdeeprom lulls you into a dreamlike state at times,  making you question the actions that you are seeing on screen, making you question that reality of the world.  The final shot of the film is one that will be remembered for the ages not only because of the phenomenal acting but also because of the framing and image that is being shown.  You couldn’t have the phenomenal acting without the visuals being shown and you couldn’t have the emotional scene without the amazing acting; they are the perfect example of a simpatico relationship.  

The film seems to be meandering for the majority of it’s running time, which is a long two hours,  until the third act which has some of the best acting that I have ever seen in a film.  While that might seem like hyperbole I promise you that it isn’t, since I wasn’t connecting with most of the film I found myself in shock when I felt tears coming down my face and my soul being torn apart by a monologue given towards the final minutes of the film by a character whom felt peripheral until that moment.  The lines that were spoken have been tossing and turning in my head since the moment I walked out of the film, it’s one of those existential moments that only the movies can give you and for that reason alone Call Me By Your Name will be talked about for generations to come.  

Normally when I mention songs in a film it’s because I feel that the studio added the songs only to sell albums, but that isn’t going to be the case with the songs by Sufjan Stevens.  The music comes completely out of left field and it feels like I walked into a different movie at the point when it comes in.  I could see myself easily enjoying the music on its own terms. “Mystery of Love” is a completely hypnotic song that puts you into a transcendental state.  I like the music for the film but find its placement in the film to be wrong. I find myself asking if I would have cut the songs completely or if I would reconfigure the film so the songs could better serve it instead of feeling like a complete break with the flow of the film.  That is a situation I still find myself puzzled over.  

It’s always frustrating when you are given a film that should be a homerun, because it fits all of the aspects that normally tantalize you,  but the film still feels like it’s holding itself at an arms distance from you.  Call Me By Your Name was a film that I wanted to adore and by all accounts it should have been based on the actors in the film and the subject matter being tackled, but I found myself wanting more substance than the tedious sophisticated romance that was being portrayed.

Rating: Rent It

-Jonny G