Call Me by Your Name
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: November 24, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
93
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 53 Critic Reviews
Positive:
51
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The GuardianPeter BradshawSep 24, 2019
There is such tenderness to this film. I was overwhelmed by it. Read full review
100
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeSep 24, 2019
Chalamet, with his restless, impatient physicality and a face as sensual and sculpted as a fallen angel from a Caravaggio painting, is quite simply astonishing. Read full review
100
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallJan 18, 2018
Call it what you want but this movie is an instantly fond memory. Read full review
100
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesDec 21, 2017
As for words? The script gives Stuhlbarg – a character actor who elevates everything he’s in – the monologue of a lifetime, which he delivers sotto voce, all kindness. And that is perhaps the prevailing note of Call Me by Your Name – of kindness, of tenderness. Read full review
100
Washington PostAnn HornadayDec 14, 2017
An almost sinfully enjoyable movie that both observes and obeys the languid rhythms of a torrid Italian summer. Read full review
100
UproxxMike RyanDec 4, 2017
Call Me By Your Name is a triumph of humanity. Read full review
100
ObserverRex ReedNov 28, 2017
Call Me By Your Name is a masterpiece of subtle emotions, intense sensuality and breathtaking beauty. Read full review
100
The New YorkerAnthony LaneNov 27, 2017
Chalamet is quite something, but Hammer is a match for him, as he needs to be, if the characters’ passions are to be believed. Read full review
100
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternNov 24, 2017
It’s a tale of totality, not during an eclipse but during a brief conjunction that changes at least one life surprisingly, and one of the greatest pleasures of the movie year. Read full review
100
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinNov 22, 2017
Chalamet gives the performance of the year. By any name, this is a masterpiece. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangNov 22, 2017
Guadagnino’s storytelling is overpoweringly intimate but never narcissistic. He directs our gaze both inward and outward, toward the treasures and mysteries buried within this Italian paradise, and also toward the unseen, unspoken forces that have threatened bonds like Elio and Oliver’s for millennia. Read full review
100
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeNov 22, 2017
First love is as much about hesitancy as it is about exuberance – maybe even more so – and Ivory and Guadagnino perfectly capture that sweet turmoil, aided by a gifted ensemble. This isn’t just an instant LGBT classic; this is one of the great movie love stories, for audiences of all stripes. Read full review
100
VoxAlissa WilkinsonNov 22, 2017
It summons an erotic orientation toward the world with all its power, and then pours it onto the audience. It is, undoubtedly, Guadagnino’s masterpiece. Read full review
100
New York PostSara StewartNov 22, 2017
Call this movie by its name: Masterpiece. Read full review
100
SlateDana StevensNov 22, 2017
This is the kind of movie you live in as much as watch. Some of its images—Hammer’s Oliver dancing with unselfconscious abandon, Chalamet’s face in extended close-up in the stunning final shot—stay with you afterward like memories of your own half-remembered romance. Read full review
100
Rolling StonePeter TraversNov 22, 2017
It's a swooning new classic and one of the very best films of the year. Read full review
100
L.A. WeeklyApril WolfeNov 21, 2017
Guadagnino adeptly captures not just the physicality of a burning love but also the emotional and intellectual components, and the film is all the more salient for that careful, realistic interpretation. Read full review
100
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireNov 20, 2017
Far and away the best movie of the year. Read full review
100
The TelegraphRobbie CollinOct 29, 2017
Stuhlbarg, who’s a treasure throughout, gets a fatherly monologue towards the film’s end that’s so observantly and tenderly performed, you can barely catch your breath. It’s one beautiful moment in a film that’s filled with them – gone in a heartbeat, but leaving the kind of ripples that reach across a lifetime. Read full review
100
Total FilmJosh WinningOct 23, 2017
Peachy keen. A luminous, sun-kissed Italian love story brimming with warmth, passion and feeling. This is utterly unmissable. Read full review
100
EmpireOlly RichardsOct 9, 2017
A film that’s at once light, joyful and emotionally devastating, with deeply affecting central performances. A full-hearted romantic masterpiece. Read full review
100
CineVuePatrick GambleFeb 16, 2017
Capturing the agony and ecstasy of young love, Call Me by Your Name is a major addition to the queer cinema canon - a deeply felt movie that's bittersweet, tender and true. Read full review
100
Time OutJoshua RothkopfFeb 2, 2017
Call Me by Your Name has a choking emotional intensity that will be apparent to anyone who’s ever dared to reach out to another. Read full review
100
Consequence of SoundDominick Suzanne-MayerJan 28, 2017
It’s a transcendent love story, and a work of overwhelming empathy. Read full review
100
The GuardianJordan HoffmanJan 23, 2017
Call Me By Your Name is a masterful work because of the specificity of its details. Read full review
100
The Hollywood ReporterBoyd van HoeijJan 23, 2017
The chemistry between the men is palpable, but what's more important, they convey their characters' complex emotions, expectations and thoughts without necessarily opening their mouths. Read full review
100
IndieWireDavid EhrlichJan 23, 2017
The final beats of Guadagnino’s adaptation galvanize two hours of simmering uncertainty into a gut-wrenchingly wistful portrait of two people trying to find themselves before it’s too late. Read full review
100
The PlaylistGregory EllwoodJan 23, 2017
Outside of a few short moments in Ismail Merchant and James Ivory’s “Maurice,” and Ang Lee’s “Brokeback Mountain,” the love and intimacy between two male characters has never truly felt this real or emotionally heartbreaking in a theatrical context. It’s almost revolutionary. It’s cinematic art. Read full review
100
VarietyPeter DebrugeJan 23, 2017
Even as he beguiles us with mystery, Guadagnino recreates Elio’s life-changing summer with such intensity that we might as well be experiencing it first-hand. It’s a rare gift that earns him a place in the pantheon alongside such masters of sensuality as Pedro Amodóvar and François Ozon, while putting “Call Me by Your Name” on par with the best of their work. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Nov 22, 2017
The potential for a tryst hangs heavily in the humid Mediterranean air; every look and line of dialogue drips with subtext. But Call Me By Your Name’s erotic tension wouldn’t crackle so loudly without the chemistry between its leads. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattNov 22, 2017
It’s real life, heartbreaking and sublime. Read full review
91
The Film StageJordan RaupJan 24, 2017
It’s a film of overwhelming empathy and playfulness as loneliness turns into gratification and desires are slowly manifested into reality. Read full review
90
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzDec 21, 2017
Call Me by Your Name is a lush, heartbreakingly beautiful film about first love, but also the glories of youth, when everything is new and any number of paths open before you. Read full review
90
The AtlanticDavid SimsNov 29, 2017
Each element is carefully calibrated, but deployed with consummate grace—this is a film to rush to, and to then savor every minute of. Read full review
90
The New York TimesManohla DargisNov 22, 2017
Call Me by Your Name is less a coming-of-age story, a tale of innocence and loss, than one about coming into sensibility. In that way, it is about the creation of a new man who, the story suggests, is liberated by pleasure that doesn’t necessarily establish sexual identity. Read full review
90
ScreenCrushE. Oliver WhitneyJan 27, 2017
Guadagnino does a remarkable job of capturing the tension and anxiety that comes with not only first love, but first-time queer romances. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy BurrDec 21, 2017
A richly detailed sexual and emotional coming of age story, the movie’s based on a novel and it unfolds novelistically, through glances and asides and slowly accreting observations. Read full review
88
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldDec 20, 2017
Guadagnino has explored this territory before...and he’s a master at finding electricity in a glance, beauty in a beam of sunlight, an entire story in the whisper of one name. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsDec 14, 2017
Chalamet is excellent, saving his purest acting for the killer final shot several minutes in length, when we finally see what these weeks with Oliver have meant to him. Read full review
88
USA TodayBrian TruittNov 22, 2017
The way it explores at length the sweet and sour aspects of first love is worth savoring. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsAmy RoweNov 22, 2017
The sex scene between the men is super sensual, just like the rest of the film, but still subtle. Read full review
80
Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganJan 23, 2017
It’s a beautiful, supremely touching performance from Chalamet which gives this surprisingly safe story its moving purity. Read full review
75
Philadelphia Daily NewsGary ThompsonDec 21, 2017
Chalamet and Hammer map this progression expertly. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonDec 21, 2017
Perhaps best remembered as a showcase for Stuhlbarg, who delivers a poignantly beautiful monologue that eclipses everything else in the film. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperDec 14, 2017
It’s a beautiful film, finely written and well acted. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleDec 13, 2017
Armie Hammer’s performance is a brilliant exercise in subtlety, suggesting a genial yet inappropriate space-taking, the carelessness of the beautiful. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliDec 9, 2017
Call Me by Your Name, the latest film from Italian director Luca Guadagnino, is a study in mood and emotion. It’s about living in the moment and capturing that moment. It’s about using the canvas of film to convey to the audience the inner feelings of the characters. Call Me by Your Name is short on dialogue and long on emoting. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerNov 24, 2017
The sensuous atmosphere often preempts the drama. Neither Elio nor (especially) Oliver are quite rich enough as characters to outshine their surroundings, and, although it’s rare to see a movie of this sort that is so markedly nonjudgmental, the lack of sharp conflict doesn’t make for a terribly invigorating experience. Read full review
75
IGNWilliam BibbianiNov 20, 2017
Call Me By Your Name is a romanticized coming of age film, for better and worse. It’s a lovely place to visit but not particularly absorbing as a narrative, even though Armie Hammer gives an impressive performance. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineSam C. MacOct 3, 2017
Call Me by Your Name is a fairly straightforward coming-of-age story that's at its finest in moments when the relationships take on larger meanings than their literal context implies, and Luca Guadagnino finds evocative aesthetic expressions for them. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorNov 20, 2017
Perhaps this multilingual, almost-pre-AIDS idyll does not stretch credulity – the family is surely based on Aciman’s own internationalist clan – but it can try the patience. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreJan 7, 2018
Call Me by Your Name isn’t so much a bad movie as a dull, bloated one, a tale of teen sexual intensity drawn out beyond the point of holding our interest, footnoted with all these spoken (repeatedly, by one and all) provisos — “This is OK because…” That’s all well and good, but I found it lacking as drama (no parental conflict), romance and period piece, a turgid potboiler overheated under the Tuscan sun. Read full review
45
Paste MagazineKyle TurnerOct 4, 2017
Though Chalamet and Hammer are up to the task of communicating a competition of desire with as few words as possible, they offer up a dare and a proposition that Guadagnino and his film never fully take on. Maybe they’re afraid of the consequences. Read full review
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