Movie Review: Call Me By Your Name

I will be brief.

Without giving anything away that is not already out there, this film is about Apricots. Yes, Apricots.

It is set in summer somewhere in Northern Italy, in the early 80s when white folk threw their limbs all over the place in the name of dancing to music….It is now 2017 and not much has changed since.

The main character is a precocious, 17 year old,who mopes around the house shirtless named Elio.  He is on vacation with his parents in their house surrounded by apricot trees, in the village. His father is an American Professor and his mother a translator. They are a multi lingual family and dialogue flows effortlessly between Italian, English, French and German. If you never thought German was a sensual language, you’d be in for a  pleasant, albeit brief surprise. Every year, Elio’s parents nominate a grad student from the University to stay with them and do some research for 6 weeks.

Cue Oliver –  somewhat older than Elio – who swaggers on screen, shirt open and wearing short shorts which reveal his long slender legs. He then proceeds to give us an impressive lecture on the origin of the word “Apricot”

There is sexual tension between Elio and Oliver, but because of possible future sexual harassment accusations (yes the film topical like that), Elio spends a lot of time in his room snacking on apricots.

I will never look at Apricots the same way again.

So how do Elio and Oliver ease the sexual tension between them? All I am allowed to say is there is a lot of cycling, Apricot juice drinking and swimming as means of cooling things off between them. We do however catch more than an eyeful of Elio and Oliver’s bare butt cheeks.

A possible Oscar winning scene is the sincere heart to heart between Elio and his father which is so moving, that I forgive Elio’s bad case of Gluteal Flatosis.  

It is an erotic and affecting , gut–wrenching story that exceeds the usual boundaries of love. The acting is sublime and you can feel the passion the two main characters emote on screen.

Assuming my movie ratings count for anything (to any of the 2 blog followers) I give the movie 4 out of 5 stars.

If you believe in love please go and see it.

Now where did I keep those apricots….🚶🏿🚶🏿🚶🏿🚶🏿