Review: Call Me By Your Name

Do you remember falling in love for the first time? Those intense, almost electric feelings brewing inside while stare at your crush? Or the fluttering, ecstatic energy that rushes through you with each accidental touch? Regardless of how long it’s been since you’ve had them, these memories flood back while watching Call Me By Your Name.

The film focuses on the relationship between Elio, a 17-year-old living in Northern Italy with his highly academic, free-spirited family, and Oliver, the 24-year-old doctoral student who is the guest of Elio’s family for 6 weeks in the summer of 1983. Though Elio is initially put off by Oliver’s presence, his attraction to the guest grows into something more complex than simple teenage infatuation. What follows is a relationship told in scenic bike rides and swimming at the lake, through secret notes and midnight meetings. It’s these small moments, the brushing of hands or the stolen glances, that make the movie so much more than a typical gay romance, but rather the story of two people falling in love.

This film is about a teenagers first, real feelings of love while also navigating the relatable coming-of-age issues of friendships, sex, loneliness, and rejection. For anyone who remembers their first feelings of love- especially those of us who have ever had a closeted romance - you’re sure to remember the small, public moments where you hold a finger or two for a brief second, but you know that is exactly where your hand belongs.

Call Me By Your Name challenges the audience to focus on the relationship of the characters rather than their sexuality, proving that first love is a universal experience. While that is an impressive plot for a film to begin with, the stellar cast of Elio’s family and friends drives it home.This film will take you back to your adolescence, to a time where the summer was for endless possibilities, regardless of the clock ticking down to reality. You’ll remember your first love, summers spent with your friends, the lazy days reading books. Experience the love, friendship, laziness, joy, and all the feelings in between wrapped up in this beautiful summer romance. It’s a peach!