Call Me by Your Name

Starring: Armie Hammer, Timothee Chalamet, Michael Stuhlbarg.
Directed by Luca Guadagnino.

 The most famous LGBTQ love stories to date tend to have a tragic tone and focus on fighting a homophobic world. Meanwhile famous heterosexual movie romances are fall of aspirational scenes emphasizing the beauty and desire of couple discovering each other.
So, what's striking about Call Me by Your Name is it depends a relationship between two men in the style of a classic movie romance - with joy and luxurious sensuality. And in doing this, it sends a powerdul emotional message that love is love.
The romance in Call Me by Your Name is in fact so aspirational that it's almost on over-the-top bourgeois fantasy. The leads are both extremely handsome and sophisticated and charming, spending their summer lounging in this ridiculously beautiful Italian villa.
Call Me by Your Name is set in the 80s but the setting also feels timeless, exempt from the forward motion of the rest of the world. We see this in the way that anthropology and history are woven into the story... the shots of the ancient statues are playing up the beauty of the male form, and they're also subtly recalling a time in history when it was socially acceptable for a man to publicly take younger male lovers.

We escape into this very free educated community where everyone speaks multiple languages and is reading all the time. Or else may be playing the piano, swimming or eating a salt boiled egg. It's kind of temporary idyllic paradise. A Utopia.