Liked it. Didn’t love it til the end.
In recent memory, ‘Brokeback Mountain’ is an excellent story of forbidden love; ‘Blue is the Warmest Color’ feels more three dimensional (and more explicit sexually). ‘Call Me By Your Name’ is strong for what it is; a young man discovers his sexuality and comes of age in the 80s when his father’s attractive grad assistant comes to town. But, to me at least, it’s more about their physical connection than a deep emotional one. Timothee Chalamet is fully arrived as a kid who can own a movie, Armie Hammer unfortunately seems to be stuck in that ‘Looks like a movie star, sounds like a movie star, but is he a movie star?’ box. It’s a solid film for 100 minutes.
Then, and I’m not the first to say this, Michael Stuhlbarg puts a button on the story of the film with a speech so perfect in expressing the unconditional love of a parent, the rareness of experiencing a white hot passionate love (and how most people settle), how love changes over time as your mind gets smarter but your body gets weaker…I was irrationally upset he didn’t get a Best Supporting Actor nomination just for that speech. It was that good.
So worth seeing this movie just for the ending.
