The ’80s was a decade known for its campy teen rom-coms. Fast Times At Ridgemont High, The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, to name a few.
Well, now we can throw Call Me By Your Name into that mix. A new parody trailer reimagines the 2017 indy sleeper hit as an ’80s teen blockbuster produced by Tri Star Pictures.
Related: Emotionally fragile teen reviews “Call Me By Your Name” in standout SNL sketch
The trailer is the work of Malcolm Edits, who explains: “Call Me By Your Name was probably my favorite movie this year, and as a gay guy, I kept thinking about how much I wish we’d had a movie like it when I was growing up. But then I realized that it’s probably better that it wasn’t made back then.”
How about we take this to the next level?
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Watch.
Brian
Lame. If you’re going to do something that’s been done a million times already, do it better, or don’t bother.
Lacuevaman
kinda like all the “smart” cellphones that came out after the iPhone?
Mick406
That was the first word out of my mouth when the trailer finished: LAME!
Wasn’t worth his editing efforts.
Sam6969
Having read the book months before the movie opened, I am not as enthusiasts as others on the film. Elio’s character in particular is very psychologically different in the movie, as well as the angle in which the whole story is presented. In the book, we live what he feels from inside: a deep, vivid, colourful, but convoluted inner life. The movie is quite shallow on that side. Also, the book has a frustrating, but realistic side that I felt more authentic. It was easier for me to identify as Elio in the book, rather than as the movie character. Probably also because I could adapt the social background to my criteria, without giving to it too much importance, like in the movie.
I would say that both the book and the movie relate probably more to the 80s audience, as I can picture them, than to our days. I would expect more openly gay movie characters now, even if it is not realistic statistically in the real world, just because we have no more legal strings working against us. I want to see, pictured in those movies, gay boys without hang-ups on the subject, as ideal characters (showing the freedom we all can reach, “the better of us”), exploring themselves more openly to people around them and showing us all the path. Particularly to the younger ones.
P.S.: I do not know why Malcolm Edits writes, about Call Me by Your Name: “[…] I realized that it’s probably better that it wasn’t made back then [in the 80s]”
CanadianGuy62
I am hoping that, as someone who knows the book well, you could explain when (or what) it was that told each character that they were into each other.
I’ve only seen the movie and, based on discussions with others who’ve seen it and are equally stumped, I’m not sure at what point the lightbulb went off.
If you could explain it, I would really appreciate it. (I’m not being facetious…I seriously missed it, or maybe I’m simply dense.) Perhaps it was über-subtle.
Mick406
“I want to see, pictured in those movies, gay boys without hang-ups ”
I agreed with everything you said except this. I didn’t want the boy to be gay. I wanted him like my friends I grew up with who were not gay but who were also not afraid to experiment and enjoy some man-on-man sex. That is more realistic to ME. I was hoping some real ‘visuals’ of the kid experiencing some ‘first time’ things. I wanted to see him go for it and give the audience the impression that having some gay moments in life, some bromance, is just part of a normal life and not make it look so detestable. Isn’t this really how most people experience homo activity in their younger years? Mature teens will do just about anything in the sex department and have no hang-ups. It is when they get older that they begin to regret and condemn what they have done in their youth. I’ve seen this MANY times. A guy who would do anything when he was 15, 16, 17, 18, and then at age 27 or 30 totally reverse and either deny or abhor what he had done in his younger years. Plus, condemn his previous male partner(s).
Since there was very little solid sexual contact between the two, I have to go along with CanadianGuy62’s thoughts: “Perhaps it was über-subtle.”
Blackceo
Echoing CanadianGuy62, I also need to know when they realized they were into each other. I haven’t read the book yet. I just ordered it and it should be arriving today. I absolutely loved the movie. I loved the cinematography and how it was just about two people falling in love. There were no consequences or punishments for being gay. No one was sick and no one got thrown out or cursed to hell. But, without spoiling it for those who haven’t seen it, there is a part where I guess Elio comes out to Oliver in the film, but it was so vague I don’t understand how the hell Oliver put it together that Elio was referring to his sexuality.
P.S. I’m not sure how thrilled I am that its getting a sequel. I get it that its a novel and that their story continues but I don’t know. I’m glad to hear that it will be Hammer and Chalamet, who had great chemistry in the movie, but I just felt like the ending was so perfect and real and relatable. There were themes in that movie I think we could all relate to. For me, the setting really hit home because I had a summer fling in a setting similar to that, except replace Crema, Italy with the countryside of Bordeaux, France. So this movie really hit home with me and brought up things in such a way that I haven’t been able to watch the film for a second time.
leobaga
@Blackceo if you loved this movie, you should check out these other amazing gay films: Free Fall, Jongens (Boys), and Floating Skyscrapers.
Sam6969
CanadianGuy62, Blackceo and Mick406:
Elio’s attraction to Oliver starts at the very beginning, but he does know it yet at that moment. The attraction grows in his consciousness as time goes by and that they learn to know each other better.
Very early though, he admits to himself he has been trying to appeal to Oliver since the beginning, willing to impress him and adapt himself to what he thinks are Oliver’s centers of interests.
In the book, Elio is very introspective, dwelling too much on his feelings and emotions, analyzing them a lot, over thinking things. He is also conflicted and still in the process of understanding and accepting his real self, meaning not clinging to an image of the self he tends also to project to others.
Elio procrastinates so much in opening himself to Oliver, it may hurt impatient readers 🙂 but he acts like that, because it is very hard for him to let go of this image and not cling to his inner colorful world (where he feels protected). It is hard for him to truly live the present moment, let go of the complexity of his feelings, let go of his inner world (he is an introverted type) and just show his love and desire for -and to- Oliver. It is called introjection and it is a defense mechanism to protect against the fear of being rejected, for showing who he really is (the real self)…and protect against the intensity of reality itself, as he is very sensitive.
However, he manages to talk about his feelings to Oliver around the middle of the book, in the same scene shown in the movie, near the fountain’s village. It is the moment when he tells Oliver how much he is important to him, implying a lot with a few words. It is part of an exchange, where Oliver asks if he really is saying what he thinks he is saying. Elio says yes and it clears things up.
On his side, Oliver, who is 24, is described as someone more grounded, perceptive and perspicacious, but not quite as much as Elio thinks. Elio believes people are able to decipher his convoluted and subtle signals and words, able to read between the lines, etc. which is typical of very subjective people like him.
However, Oliver clearly says later in the book, that he has been attracted to Elio since the beginning, but it was easier for him than for Elio to hide it. He also says that, quite early, just fixing Elio in the eyes and seeing him blush and reveal involuntarily his feelings made him almost sure Elio was into him. When Elio asks why he did not show more clearly his desires for him earlier, Oliver replies that he did, particularly in touching (massaging) him after the Tennis party. Unfortunately, as Elio did not react well, he decided to keep his distances. Later near the fountain, Elio’s initiative to talk to him (even subtly) clarified things. So, Oliver was not that surprised, but he had still some doubts beforehand and this scene clarified to both of them what they felt. Yet, Oliver was not sure it was a good idea to pass that point.
Sex scenes are quite discreet in both the book and the movie, but they are much clearer and realistic in the book. In particular, when Oliver eats the peach with Elio’s semen inside, or when Oliver takes him missionary style and Elio shows it hurts him.
@ Mick406
Actually, Elio’s “hang-ups” or conflicts about his same-sex attractions are clearer in the book (at least in the two third of it) than in the movie. I meant I ideally preferred to watch gay teens freer with themselves on that subject, now.
Of course, for teens, who are straight (or truly bisexual) it may be easier for them, since they know deep inside they are straight-able and can choose to have a “regular” family with wife and kids. They feel freer.
Real gay (or gay-dominant) teens can be more conflicted and be confronted to identity issues very early. All of them, gay, straight of not, are often conflicted at this age to exposing publicly their same-sex romance/experience.
To me as well, I hope someday, no one will regret or minimize their past same-sex relationships/experiences. I hope ALL teens will enjoy experiencing freely their sexuality without making identity issues out of it.
ShowMeGuy
hysterical
balehead
KInda phoned in…no pun intended…..
Ryan Field
Who knew? Tons of authors, including me, in the male/male romance genre have been working for years trying to give gay readers what they didn’t have when they were kids. All we had to do was give them a barely legal 17 year old.
leobaga
AWWW, that’s so beautiful!
crowebobby
Sam6969: I agree. Guys who are sure they’re 100% straight have no qualms about a bit of homoerotic “messing around,” whereas guys who think they may be gay don’t think they can afford to do any of that, lest other guys see through them. Sometimes guys who’ve never allowed themselves to do anything remotely gay will open up once they’re married. . . and in their mind finally “officially” straight.
David
I was expecting something better…
Tombear
I’ll wait until , “A Seperate Peace” comes out on film.
RexRed
My own contribution to this film… Sorry, only available in Europe for now, copyright reasons. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWiTVG2Im_0
Rocky
It is so nice and beautifull
Tuiwe Loopez
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