Guadagnino's setting is in a sense a platonic ideal of the 1980s. How many of us were ever so lithe and gorgeous, so intelligent and self-possessed? How many of us once knew the longing, and how many, really, the having? As Professor Perlman tells his son in an extraordinarily moving scene, a love like Elio and Oliver's is rare indeed, and before we even know it, our best days our behind us. On the strength of this film, let's hope that Guadagnino's are not.
Catherine Wheatley
October 26, 2017