Blu-ray + Digital HD

Call Me by Your Name Blu-ray Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman, March 13, 2018

may encompass certain highlight points that point to a sweetness and tenderness of coming-of-age romance, but the movie is instead about the realities of love won and lost and an evolving physiology and the mental capacity to process it. "I know nothing," the film's lead character, Elio, says at one point after rattling off World War I trivia as if he were a museum curator or college professor. As the film explores the friendly and ultimately romantic relationship shared between a twenty-something man and a teenage boy, it takes a serious look at internal pain and strife beyond the immediate joys of their slow-build and ultimately short-lived whirlwind romance. Theirs is not a serious relationship but rather a fling with long-lasting repercussions on the soul, particularly for the young, impressionable, hormonal teenage Elio who is prone to (subtle and often inward) emotional swings and swirling, confusing responses to his body's wants and his soul's desires. The film transcends the physical aspect of the relationship -- including the age of the teenager -- and focuses, ultimately, on the rather dangerous precipice onto which it emotionally perches him. Directed by Luca Guadagnino (who is directing the upcoming remake of the classic Dario Argento film Suspiria ) and based on the book of the same name by André Aciman,was nominated for several Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actor for young Timothée Chalamet.Italy, Summer, 1983. Elio's (Chalamet) father (Michael Stuhlbarg), a professor of archeology, invites one of his graduate students, Oliver (Armie Hammer), to stay with the family over the summer. Elio, only 17 years old, is still exploring his world and coming to understand his body and desires. He's become sexually active with a girl named Marzia (Esther Garrel). But he also becomes infatuated with the older Oliver, a young man who is in every way a physical specimen, who walks and talks and loves with unmatched confidence. Their lazy Summer days together see their relationship evolve from friendship to infatuation to lovers. But their relationship is tested as the Summer moves along, as their true feelings are challenged and their time together grows ever shorter.With, Director Luca Guadagnino, Screenwriter James Ivory (who won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for his work on this film), Editor Walter Fasano, and Cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom have created a visual and structural masterwork that allows the narrative's slow build and quickly escalating romance to simmer and explode, respectively, contained in a gorgeously assembled visual framework. It's engagingly and enticingly paced. It's deliberate in the slow-drip march towards the central narrative romance arc and careful to build the world around it with impeccable detail that doesn't simply recreate a place or time but supports the essential character constructs and maneuverings as Oliver and Elio emotionally and, eventually, physically, realize their desires. The film primarily follows the aching Elio, whose infatuation with Oliver only intensifies, exponentially, from curiosity to lust to love. He, at one the point, immerses himself in the older man's shorts, absorbing his odors and imagining the sensual sensations of a tryst or, perhaps more deeply, a serious relationship with a man from whom he can learn so much. Even as he (and Oliver) explores his opportunities with a beautiful young girl, his body and his emotional state alike distract him from their lovemaking as both ache for the older man. The film's greatest success, beyond its impeccable external craftsmanship, is its ability to channel Elio's feelings, the very real pangs of curiosity, lust, and love that nearly drive him mad until he can release those feelings in the arms of the man he desires above all others but that may return to hurt him tenfold soon thereafter, when fantasy and infatuation come crashing down in favor of reality.The film boasts an exceptional tandem of lead performances. Timothée Chalamet absorbs his character, quickly finding an emotional center which, for Elio, is in a constant state of flux as he deals with his emotional and sexual maturations with Oliver as the centerpiece of his burgeoning essence. Armie Hammer is every bit his equal as the suave elder, but the film certainly belongs to Chalamet, through whose perspective the narrative unfolds. Perhaps that's why the film works, dangerously so, admittedly, as a story that sees an older man engage sexually with an underage teenager. It's controversial territory, and the film, despite widespread praise, garnered some criticism, particularly as it released at a time when Hollywood's seedy underbelly has come under a harsh and unforgiving spotlight. The story is told through the teenager's perspective, by way of his evolving emotional and physical states. It's a film that, despite its numerous achievements in assembly and performance, will understandably push away many potential viewers. Beyond even its homosexual currents, much more widely accepted in contemporary culture, it's the age and, perhaps more importantly, fragile emotional state in which its protagonist finds himself that might prove most upsetting to any potential viewer. But taken at face value and understanding the story's greater purpose as it follows young man exploring his ever-evolving essence, it's a masterpiece.