Hammerman Ikon

Hammerman Ikon Film Guide

Call Me by Your Name
2017
***
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Cast: Armie Hammer, Timothée Chalamet, Michael Stuhlbarg, Amira Casar, Esther Garrel, Victoire Du Bois

During the summer of 1983, 17-year-old Elio gradually falls for Oliver, an American graduate student who works as his father's research assistant in their summer house in Northern Italy. This coming-of-age story is well-acted and shot, but as a drama it feels like much ado about nothing. I understand that when you’re young and heartbroken, the whole world seems to revolve around your heightened emotions, but the central romance (more of a fling, to be honest) fails to resonate with me or tug at my heartstrings. Incidentally, Bernardo Bertolucci's Stealing Beauty (1996) covered similar ground. James Ivory adapted André Aciman's 2007 novel for his Academy Award winning screenplay.