Call Me By Your Name - Luca Guadagnino (2017)

Do you remember the moment you discovered you were a sexual creature? You think of others as more than just handsome or beautiful. You actually want to do things to them. You start to wonder creatively what those things could be.

Luca Guadagnino's "Call Me By Your Name," reaches back to that moment when one's sexuality first rears its head.

Every summer, the Perlman family hosts a guest for the summer. The patriarch, Mr. Perlman (Michael Stuhlbarg), is a professor and it's an opportunity for a kind of mentorship. This summer, that guest is Oliver (Armie Hammer), a twenty-four-year-old student of Mr. Perlman.

At first, Elio (Timothee Chalamet), the Perlmans' seventeen-year-old son, doesn't like Oliver at all. In fact, Oliver is kind of a dick. He's arrogant and dismissive. He refuses any overtures of friendship, but he himself demands constant companionship. He expects others to drop everything to accommodate him. So yeah, Oliver is not just kind of a dick. He's a straight-up bastard.

Elio has to spend almost all of his time entertaining Oliver. He has to go on errands with him. Whenever it suits Oliver, he insists Elio must accompany him all of the time as he goes bike riding or swimming, etc.

Slowly, Elio's feelings turn from annoyance to attraction. Like a little man-crush, and the romance builds from there.

At the same time, Elio is curious about sex in general. He hasn't found his identification yet, so while he's falling for Oliver, his romance with girlfriend Marzia (Esther Garrel) is progressing, getting more serious and more sexual.

But as his attraction to Olivier turns into infatuation, he has to make some kind of choice. To be fair, Marzia deserves that much. She needs to know where her relationship with Elio is going.

The bulk of the film concentrates on the evolving romance between Oliver and Elio. Now, the time he spends with Oliver, running errands, bike riding, swimming etc. have gone from tedious to treasured.

The way the story plays out with this small intimate group of characters, against the backdrop of northern Italy in the summer makes me think of Bernardo Bertolucci's "Stealing Beauty." Just as in "Stealing Beauty," the characters adore each other and that endears them to us. Plus, the love scenes between Oliver and Elio are soft and intimate.

One thing I have learned from art-house, gay-centered films is that all of the love scenes starts with play fighting. I don't believe that's the way it is in life, but I don't think I've ever seen a gay love sequence without that wrestling kind of foreplay.


The tenderness and subtly which with Guadagnino unfolds this romance is beautiful. If you like love stories at all, you'll enjoy "Call Me By Your Name."

Lady Macbeth - William Oldroyd (2017)

Oh my God and holy hell!

If we went back in time to the beginning of the year, I would tell you that there was no way there was going to be a better film to come out in 2017 than Gordon Peele's "Get Out."

Now we may have a contender. A more subtle one, but a contender nonetheless.

"Lady Macbeth" starts quietly and with very little ado.

Katherine (Florence Pugh) has been sold along with a small piece of land. She is forced to marry a middle-aged boorish man, Alexander (Paul Hilton.)

Katherine is a meek girl and is treated roughly. Aside from her husband, there is her new father-in-law, Boris (Christopher Fairbank) who is even more of a bully than his son.

When Boris and Alexander leave the estate, Elizabeth roams the grounds and comes across a group of workers. Notably Sebastian, (Cosmo Jarvis) who stands out, seemingly as crude as her new family. Almost immediately, without warning, the two find a ferocious hunger for each other.

But, like love, lust knows no bounds and has no rules. The couple's sexual relationship winds up and hits the ground running. Elizabeth and Sebastian spend most of their time making love, hardly coming up for air.

At first, one gets the feeling that the pair believes themselves to be careful about covering up the affair. What they do not realize is that the nature of sex is to confess itself. People have a nose for detecting it.

Elizabeth's lady's maid Anne (Naomi Ackie) is the first to verify her own suspicions. Anna is crucial to both the story and theme of "Lady Macbeth." She serves as the conscience of the film.

When Boris returns ahead of his son, he quickly figures out what has been going on while they were away from the estate. Boris is a nasty old bastard, solely defined by his cruelty. He looks like Mitch McConnell with huge sideburns.

Now that Elizabeth is no longer a demure, submissive woman, she takes matters into her own hands and takes care of Boris.

The only other person who knows what Elizabeth has done is Anna, the one character who stands by and watches in horror at each diabolical move her mistress makes.

With Boris gone, Elizabeth and Sebastian are left to their own naked devices. Then, the worst happens. Her husband, Alexander, is back. He has known for a while now that his wife was banging the help. And wickedness breeds more of the same.

The rest of the film speaks to the very nature of wickedness. Shameful deeds only lead to more and more cruelty. Evil itself is the protagonist of "Lady Macbeth."

Sin affects each sinner differently. One will grow a conscience while the other becomes callous.


When it looks like everything Elizabeth and Sebastian have done may come to light, they spiral down to a place where one can never return.

Just as in life, some sinners will horrify themselves with what they have become while others will focus only on self-defense.

"Lady Macbeth" is a warning that if you start with even the smallest trespass, you could find yourself sunk in the mud up past your eyeballs.

This film is hypnotic, intensely sexual and uncommonly wise.

Every single scene in "Lady Macbeth" is each its own story with a beginning, middle and an end. You end up watching dozens of small narratives strung together. The shots are held, sometimes for an uncomfortable amount of time, until the story is over. Editor Nick Emerson pulls all of these scenes and weaves them into one horribly wonderful story.

I should give you fair warning. I am a pretty desensitized and numb guy when it comes to the contents of the films I watch. But there was one long sequence in this film that I had a very time difficult time watching. I wanted to turn away myself, so I just want to give you a heads up not to watch this film lightly. If you watch this scene, it will disturb you. That's just a heads up for the faint of heart.

Other than that, for the love of God, see one of the best films of the year. "Lady Macbeth" is on its last legs of its theatrical release. Don't expect it to be at your art-house for much longer. Time is of the essence.

Personal Shopper - Olivier Assayas (2017)

Maureen (Kristen Stewart) has not done much but grieve since her twin brother, Lewis, who died of heart failure three months ago. She goes to Lewis' isolated house in hope of contacting him from 'the beyond.'

She refuses to leave Paris because she and her twin had made a pact that whichever one of them died first would send the living one some kind of sign.

Maureen refuses to leave Paris without some kind of signal from her dead twin.

Maureen is a medium, as was Lewis. Maureen has always retained a certain amount of skepticism, while her twin had always been what one would call a 'true believer.'

The big question right now is: does this agreement give Maureen hope, or just prolong her grief?

Just how long can one live in mourning?

Finally, after waiting for three months, Maureen gets two signs. Neither are tangible enough to convince her beyond doubt. Is it possible Lewis has signaled Maureen without her noticing?

Then, a third, malevolent, signal roars from out of nowhere. This is definitely not her her brother. Not only can she feel this new presence. She can see it.

It is not long before Maureen starts to get texts from an entity. It is not her brother. This spirit is angry and violent.

As the film progresses, it evolves into a kind of existential tale about technology vs. Spirituality. And there is study of the connection between grief and fear.

Pieces of "Shopper" have sparse (or no) dialogue. Assayas helps us understand Maureen even when she keeps her quiet.

Parts of "Personal Shopper" feel Bergman-esque. Some of the sequences feel as though they could have been lifted right out of "Persona" or "Cries and Whispers."

Assayas and Film Editor Marion Monnier let us slowly settle into the story without us having to worried about distracting, premature cuts. They let us see characters reacting instead of focusing on the acting.

Kristen Stewart has built up a great deal of credibility since her "Twilight" days. She has refused to be type-cast. She chooses small, intimate characters in very important films. (Clouds of Sils Maria, Welcome to the Rileys)

"Shopper" is gaining notoriety. It has done well on the Festival circuit. I was expecting a typical art-house film, but at its heart, it's a vivid and convincing ghost story.

I enjoyed it very much, but this film is not important nor is it groundbreaking. I am afraid this is not a movie you should drop everything to see.

If you want a thriller or ghost story, this is a satisfactory way to spend 105 minutes.

In a word...meh.