Life-Affirming- A Beautiful Masterpiece.

Rating: Null/10 (21 January 2018)

Luca Guadagnino's beautiful and heartbreaking masterpiece is a film nearly everyone can relate to. We've all had feelings of passionate love that end up turning into depression and sorrow once things crumble. "Call Me by Your Name," a poetic testament to first love, is a perfect film with some of the most emotional and powerful content in recent film history. Timothy Chalamet shines as Elio, a teenager who spends his summer with his family in Northern Italy where his father (a superb Michael Stuhlbarg) teaches a new anthropology graduate student each year. Elio falls for the graduate student Oliver, a cocky and handsome man in his late twenties played terrifically by Armie Hammer. The chemistry between these two young men is unlike anything you've ever seen. Chalamet proves he's one of the very best young actors around with his passionate and soul-crushing performance, promising us many incredible future roles. "Call Me by Your Name" hits hard, allowing nearly everyone, whether gay or straight, male or female, to relate to the beauty and horrors of falling madly in love and making oneself vulnerable. James Ivory's brilliantly adapted script examines the nature of love and sex while simultaneously giving us a deeply moving coming of age tale surrounding a tortured soul. Luca Guadagnino's passionate direction proves the power of small indie films. His eye for emotion and beauty is sensational, crafting a cinematically and emotional beautiful chronicle of love and loss. Few films will make you feel and think as much as this cinematic gem.