Based on the acclaimed novel by André Aciman, ‘Call Me by Your Name‘ is an enchanting narrative with first-rate performances by Armie Hammer and Timothée Chalamet. The story is about sexual awakening and the pure and true love between Oliver (Hammer) and Elio (Chalamet). The film is set in Northern Italy in the summer of 1983. Eighties attire, the fantastic song ‘Love My Way’ by the Psychedelic Furs, and a complete lack of youngsters with their noses pressed to a screen of some sort completes the interpretation of the decade.

Seventeen-year-old Elio meets the older Oliver, who was once an archeology student of his father’s, Mr. Perlman (Stuhlbarg). Oliver has come to stay and work as Mr. Perlman’s research assistant for the summer, something a chosen student does often.
Elio, who is still a virgin, has a young woman, who’s very attracted to him. She chases him around for his attention. When Oliver enters the picture, it’s hard for her to get any notice except for a few times when Elio is jealous that Oliver is out with a female.

Guadagnino toys with our emotions, making us question what we see as the growing infatuation in Elio, but his feelings soon become obvious. Elio is a pianist and is deeply passionate. His affections for Oliver seems to confuse him but that doesn’t stop him. He’s becoming a man who, for the first time, yearns and lusts after someone. As his frustration grows, his desire grows. What he’s going through is masterfully examined for the audience. He must somehow test Oliver to see if his affections are returned. I can’t say enough how incredibly well written and directed these scenes are. Watching the friends, in the time of Aids and people largely staying in the closet, find a way to break the ice and be with one another, was fascinating, to say the least.

It is somewhat slow as summer vacation can be and it comes across as a bit lazy but when Elio’s intentions are finally made clear, by the young man breathing in Oliver’s essence through a pair of dirty shorts he holds and caresses, the story finds it’s voice.

Elio hides his sexuality from his parents and acts as if he has an interest in girls. What’s so wonderful about the movie is that he has a fear of them knowing the truth but they open up to him first and let him know that they understand. Stuhlbarg has a beautiful monologue ensuring Elio that his mother and father have not only suspected he was interested in Oliver but are completely supportive of the relationship. Mr. Perlman, being a protective father, tells him and therefore reassures his son, that it was good he and Oliver were together, and that Elio can come talk to him whenever he needs to. With a faraway look in his eyes, he explains that the typical parent would want their child to grow out of being gay but he is not that kind of parent, even suggesting he had questions of his own sexuality at some point in his life when he tells the boy, ‘I may have come close but I never had what you two had.’

As far as the acting goes, with Hammer, you usually expect to see him star in a comedic action movie, but he strips away all preconceived notions of who he is as an actor and presents the portrayal of love interest and lover, to a young man, with ease. They have playful, tender and loving scenes before Oliver goes back to America and you never once questions how they feel about one another. They’re both nervous and unsure of themselves but finally become confident in their love which carries them through a special summer of kissing, touching, learning from each other and lovemaking.

At the end of the film, there’s a phone call from Oliver to Elio. The emotions he goes through from the beginning of the call to the end of the call exhibits why there’s a lot of praise for Chalamet’s performance. During the call, he realizes he has lost the love of his life. Elio’s message from his father is to feel the sorrow and the pain, never bury it. You may lose your love but at least you had someone love you that powerfully once.
Throughout the film, the scenery is gorgeous, the acting is by far some of the best of the year, there are some odd cinematic choices but the story is utterly beautiful. It’s very sensual and excessively sexual but don’t let that prevent you from seeing such a delightful, albeit, crushing tale of passion.

Downsizing, directed by the fabulously insightful, intelligent and shrewd Alexander Payne (The Descendants, Nebraska), is as humorous, as expected, but so much more; not a surprise from the director of Sideways which was an incredibly serious film about depression and infidelity sold as a buddy comedy.  Similarly, Downsizing is an important lesson about our climate hidden in a comedy about Paul (Damon) and his wife Audrey (Wiig), deciding to shrink themselves to five inches tall.  The trailer shows us that Paul shrinks himself and that at the last minute she does not.  The ‘getting through a domestic situation’ is a bit banal but then, almost immediately, we learn the true heart of the story which is that the reason people are shrinking themselves is to reduce the impact or assault, rather, that humans are having on mother nature herself.  Overpopulation has become a burden on the planet as we are using all its resources and there will be repercussions from this.

To prove our impact on the planet can change, a scientist, Dr. Jorgen Asbjørnsen (Lassgård), shrinks himself and thirty-five others and they live small for four years.  In those four years, the trash they created fits into only one trash bag.  Ten years later, communities of people shrinking themselves are popping up.  Since people can live using such tiny amounts of actual product, they’re able to live the lavish lifestyles of their dreams.  $100,000 equals the amount of 12 million in their new lives as small people.  Another benefit of doing this is if they’re walking in with even a small saving’s, they’ll most likely never run out of money.  Paul and Audrey decide to shrink themselves when his mother passes away.  While they celebrate their decision at a local bar before they have the procedure, a man gives them some counterpoints, one which is that since they will no longer contribute to society as much, they shouldn’t receive benefits as people who don’t have the procedure, such as their vote shouldn’t count.  He gives them a rather hard time and Paul gets upset, but Audrey starts to think about the ramifications of the decision.  Even though she would be living in the perfect Barbie ‘Dream House’, equipped with everything imaginable, leaving her life behind, especially her parents, does start to weigh heavy on her.

We see Paul go through the process of shrinking which is startling, to say the least.  Damon was a trooper for having everything totally shaved off.  When shrinking, you can’t have anything on the outside of your body so it all must be removed… think about that a moment.  It’s a must-see scene.  When he has completed his transformation, he finds out she won’t be joining him.  A year later, he’s now divorced and miserable so he decides to move into an apartment.  He meets an upstairs neighbor by the name of Dusan (Waltz), who convinces him happiness can be found again.  This character changes his life by introducing him to people who snap him out of his self-pity.

It’s here where the film takes a chance, not only with the wild and clever imaginative story but on how its audience may view certain topics.  It addresses, in one way or another, most of the crucial subjects facing us today.  Those subjects are the building of the wall, immigration, poverty, racism and protesting but the crux of the story is about the state of our climate.

Next, we meet a character by the name of Ngoc Lan Tran, played magnificently by Hong Chau.  She has a beautiful and emotional scene that surely puts her in the best-supporting-actress category this year.  She’s as a Vietnamese dissident, opens Paul’s eyes and is meant to open ours, as well, as she explains why and how she came to the country of her dreams, the United States of America.  In Vietnam, she was jailed for years for protesting a dam that buried her village, something that may hit home for Americans if they consider the pipelines being protested today.

Ultimately, with this movie, Payne wants to educate his audience about methane gasses and let us know that if things aren’t reversed, humankind could vanish.  A line of dialogue about the planet purging itself of the human race made this point obvious if you hadn’t caught on at a certain point in the film.  
The story in its entirety is bizarre, entertaining and well shot, but oddly bewitching.  I think it’s an important film for everyone to watch, lest you think we could get through climate change completely unscathed.  Even if you don’t believe the chief subject is real, the performances and the premise in and of itself is fascinating.  This is a good film to watch this holiday season.

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