Simple coming of age film

Rating: 7/10 (17 July 2018)

Call Me by Your Name was a gorgeous film with an enjoyable but simple story. A coming of age story about a gay man who falls in love with an older student; this film is a slow burn. It has a relatively slow pace, but the film is still captivating with its beautiful shots and interesting characters. This film excels at character development. You can see both Chalamet's and Hammer's character change the way they feel about and act toward each other throughout the film. I also think that the acting was very good. Timothy Chalamet, Armie Hammer, and Micheal Stuhlbarg had great performances. All of them really displayed their character's emotions well. The last thing I really enjoyed was the cinematography. I thought the visuals were very beautiful, partially because of the amazing location choices and partially because of the lighting and camera work. Now the reason that I gave this film three and a half stars and not higher is because of the few things I did not enjoy. I thought the film had a hard time ending. It kept acting as if it was about to be over, and then an additional scene would start up. I enjoyed how the film concluded once it did, but before that I kept feeling restless. This film also did not make me feel as many emotions as other recent coming of age stories (e.g., Moonlight). I felt less connected to the characters even though I thought they were great. Overall, I enjoyed this film and can see why many people loved it, but I do not think it added anything new to the coming of age teen romance genre.