
Image via Sony Pictures Classics
I first saw Call Me by Your Name at the Sundance Film Festival, almost a year ago. I was blown away then, and it’s remained my favorite movie of 2017 ever since. The filmmaking on display in this 80s-set summer romance/coming-of-age/coming-out story is phenomenal. Director Luca Guadagnino does such a masterful job of making the world of his film real and tactile that for two and a half hours, you feel as though you’re there in Italy with Elio and Oliver, feeling what they’re feeling. From the precise yet intimate cinematography to the impeccable sound design to the almost dreamlike choices of music, every inch of Call Me by Your Name feels like it was tuned just right.
That certainly extends to the performances, and it’s the work of Timothee Chalametand Armie Hammer that solidifies the film’s connection with its audience as something truthful. You feel the love blossoming between these two, but you also delight in watching them tiptoe around each other at first, playing a passive-aggressive game of chicken. These characters feel lived in and fully realized, and Chalamet and Hammer both rise to the occasion and then some.
A lot of the films on this list solidified my faith in the power of cinema, and that’s true of Call Me by Your Name. It’s a wildly empathetic film, but it’s almost magically transportative. Film as a medium has the capacity to transport the viewer’s consciousness to another time or place, if only for a moment, but with Call Me by Your Name Guadagnino not only sustains the illusion for the entirety of the film’s runtime, he imbues each and every frame of the film with emotional honesty, making this an experience that you feel deep in your bones, not just with your senses. That’s pretty incredible, and in a day and age where our attentions are being pulled in every single direction all the time, a film that works this well, on this level, and speaks to the universality of love and heartbreak, is basically a miracle.
Honorable Mentions: A Cure for Wellness, Stronger, The Lost City of Z, The Big Sick, Logan Lucky
تعليقات
إرسال تعليق