100
The Hollywood Reporter by Boyd van Hoeij
The chemistry between the men is palpable, but what's more important, they convey their characters' complex emotions, expectations and thoughts without necessarily opening their mouths.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
100
The final beats of Guadagnino’s adaptation galvanize two hours of simmering uncertainty into a gut-wrenchingly wistful portrait of two people trying to find themselves before it’s too late.
100
Consequence of Sound by Dominick Suzanne-Mayer
It’s a transcendent love story, and a work of overwhelming empathy.
90
ScreenCrush by E. Oliver Whitney
Guadagnino does a remarkable job of capturing the tension and anxiety that comes with not only first love, but first-time queer romances.
80
Screen International by Fionnuala Halligan
It’s a beautiful, supremely touching performance from Chalamet which gives this surprisingly safe story its moving purity.
100
The Playlist by Gregory Ellwood
Outside of a few short moments in Ismail Merchant and James Ivory’s “Maurice,” and Ang Lee’s “Brokeback Mountain,” the love and intimacy between two male characters has never truly felt this real or emotionally heartbreaking in a theatrical context. It’s almost revolutionary. It’s cinematic art.
100
The Guardian by Jordan Hoffman
Call Me By Your Name is a masterful work because of the specificity of its details.
91
It’s a film of overwhelming empathy and playfulness as loneliness turns into gratification and desires are slowly manifested into reality.
100
Call Me by Your Name has a choking emotional intensity that will be apparent to anyone who’s ever dared to reach out to another.
100
Even as he beguiles us with mystery, Guadagnino recreates Elio’s life-changing summer with such intensity that we might as well be experiencing it first-hand. It’s a rare gift that earns him a place in the pantheon alongside such masters of sensuality as Pedro Amodóvar and François Ozon, while putting “Call Me by Your Name” on par with the best of their work.
The film is beautifully shot, and beautifully acted, and is honestly a great experience to watch, but there is no reason for Elio to be 17. There are good ways to portray these kinds of relationships. For example by working entirely from the younger character's viewpoint, making it less an objective view of love and more of a coming of age story. But that is not what this is. Never do we feel that anyone in the story is aware of how inappropriate a relationship between a 24-year old and a teenager really is, even though many characters are more than aware that it's happening. Overall, it's a technically brilliant movie. The relationship between the two main characters feels real and personal, every character is explored in enough depth to make them realistic, and the score is a work of art in and of itself. But I just don't understand why any parent would be okay with their teenage son sleeping with a grad student, and I don't think the movie does enough, or actually anything, to address this problem.
Timothee Chalamet is incredibly engaging and impactful onscreen, and he gives my favorite performance of 2017. Chalamet's acting, along with some wonderful cinematography, definitely make this film worth a watch. With that being said, the age difference between the two leads feels too insurmountable (not to mention, inappropriate), and I was never really convinced of the great love/relationship between the two.
I disagree with those criticizing the age different between the leads. Although perhaps unsettling to American audiences, critics miss the fact that age gaps like the one in the film are much more common in European countries. That being said, although Timothee Chalamet and Armi Hammer both give understated and engaging performances, they seem to lack romantic chemistry. The cinematography and set design is beautiful, and it's overall a really well made and affecting film, but the lack of romantic chemistry between the leads keeps this film from taking its place among the best onscreen romances.