The Eminence of 'Call Me By Your Name'

As a group of my four friends and I enter the famed Tower Theater in Little Havana, Miami on a gloomy Friday evening, none of us had any idea of the magnitude of the film we were about to watch. On the outside, Call Me By Your Name, directed by Luca Guadagnino, looks like your classic love story between two young men, yearning ever-so-desperately for one another.

Let me tell you: it is so much more than that.

The film itself is set in Crema, a charming city nestled in Northern Italy. Elio, played by Timothée Chalamet who is taking the Oscars by storm this year, is the main character who exudes just what it is to feel completely and utterly in love with Oliver, played by Armie Hammer. Oliver is a graduate student who becomes an intern of sorts to Elio's father at their summer home in Italy; where the relationship of both Oliver and Elio blossoms.

One of the countless ways I was pulled in by this movie was the manner in which it was filmed: on 35-mm film. The picturesque scenes of lakes, 17-century villas, and Italian life depicted in the 1980s were made up of beautiful shades of pastel blues, greens, yellows, and plethora of colors within its palette.

To put it simply: this film perfectly captures what I believe it is to be alive, to be in love, to be human. We are all on our own path in this life and we each experience our own beautiful miracles and beautiful disasters. Each step we take in life is one closer to what we understand about ourselves and of the world entirely. Whether the encounter of a summer romance between two gay men in the Italian 80s or the road-blocks an 18-year-old girl has to face to survive college in New York, we each have our own ups and downs to paint on this canvas we call life.

Do yourself a favor, do your best friend a favor, do your mom, your girlfriend, your cousin a favor and watch Call Me By Your Name. Whether it ignites a fire in your belly to take a chance at something you've always dreamed of, or simply offers you a beautiful piece of cinematography to comment on, it will surely leave an imprint on you, because it sure has on me.