Well made, but extremely slow-paced.

Rating: 8/10 (10 January 2018)

'CALL ME BY YOUR NAME': Four Stars (Out of Five)
A coming-of-age romantic drama from director Luca Guadagnino (who also helmed 2009's 'I AM LOVE' and 2015's 'A BIGGER SPLASH'). It's about a 17-year-old living in Italy, who begins a romantic relationship with his father's American assistant. It's based on the 2007 novel (of the same name) by Andre Aciman, and it was scripted by James Ivory. The film stars Timothee Chalamet, Armie Hammer, Michael Stuhlbarg, Amira Casar and Esther Garrel. It's received nearly unanimous positive reviews from critics, and it's also been nominated for multiple prestigious awards (including Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture-Drama, Best Actor-Drama, and Best Supporting Actor). I found it to be well made, but extremely slow-paced.
Elio (Chalamet) is a 17-year-old Jewish American boy, who lives in Italy with his parents (Stuhlbarg and Casar). During the summer of 1983, his father, an archaeology professor, invites a Jewish American graduate student, named Oliver (Hammer), to come stay with the family in order to help with paperwork. Elio initially doesn't like the presence of Oliver, but he slowly becomes attracted to him. A romantic relationship between the two soon develops.

I've enjoyed Guadagnino's other films, especially 'I AM LOVE', but this one I had a hard time sitting through. I appreciate that it's a coming-of-age gay love story, I think Hollywood needs more of those, but it's just so slow-paced in my opinion, and long. The acting is all good in it though, the cinematography is beautiful, and the climax is involving. It's definitely not a bad film by any measure, but you have to have a lot of patience to sit through it (I did at least).