One of the most progressive films of this century, 'call me by your name' is the quintessential modern-day love story. It is dramatic, romantic, tragic, and equally heartbreaking. It is the best coming-of-age story to watch and the academy award it bagged in 2018 solidifies that fact.
1. Story & Screenplay
Although James Ivory is not so popular in the United States of America, He has had a long & withstanding career of nearly forty years of writing in the Italian cinema. This is just another one of his masterpieces and provides no less joy than any of his other works. The story starts off slow due to immense character development and that is actually the best part of the movie. Character development is the hardest thing to write because a writer has to immerse himself into his characters to write them better and these two characters are very well written. Their personalities, thoughts, and feelings are experienced and felt throughout the movie and this is only because of the impressive writing.
2. Direction
Luca Guadagnino is also another name not familiar in the US but his directing portfolio is better than many prominent American directors. The way this movie was directed is also a plus point. Every shot was elegant and had a softcore aesthetic to it. It mostly used warm colors to incite warm feelings and boy, oh boy it was successful. It paid more attention to the person rather than the background which was evident in the director's choice of not using wide-angled lenses.
3. Cast
The script is one of the most complex scripts ever to be written. It is progressive and bold. Homosexuality is not a very fluid concept, especially where I come from. To write something so touching and heartfelt is not an easy job but to act it out is even more difficult. It requires a high degree of professionalism and commitment to character. Armie Hammer &Timothie Chalamet have proved themselves to be one the best on-screen pairs of this decade. Their sobriety, maturity, eye contact, and how they held themselves throughout the movie were simply beautiful. period.
LGBTQ movies are less in volume because the producers are reluctant to invest in them. If all of you reading this try and watch at least one such movie, it will help the community, and what better movie to start than 'call me by your name'!