Review of Call Me by Your Name (2017) by Paula D — 04 Feb 2018

I am a Math major. It is hard to get me out of my head. Near impossible, in fact. Call Me By Your Name achieved just that. I found myself not wanting to, almost unable to think. I just wanted to watch and feel it, breathe it, be mesmerized, bewitched, intoxicated.

I loved the peach theme running through the film from Oliver chugging a glass of juice as if it were water to the insanely sensual while barely sexual scene towards the end with feelings of violation and pleasure and disgust and sweetness and so much that cannot be translated into words that Elio might have felt. I loved how there were no close-ups of Olivier early on - we were getting to know him at the same time as other characters were. And how inspite of his brash, borderline rude demeanor half way through the film everyone on screen and me watching fall in love with him. The acting is restrained and real. My only complaint is that Armie Hammer may have been too restrained. I get it, Oliver is used to putting up a front and keeping his emotions tightly wrapped inside, but I felt a little bit of warmth could have gone a long way.