Call Me by Your Name is not a gay movie.

Contents:

• WHY DO GAYS KEEP FALLG FOR CALL ME BY YOUR NAME?
• CALL ME BY YOUR NAME: GEO, BUT IS IT GAY?
• 'CALL ME BY YOUR NAME' IS THE STRAIGHTT GAY MOVIE EVER
• REVIEW: THE GAY ROMANCE CLASSIC “CALL ME BY YOUR NAME” IS AN SENTIAL READ

WHY DO GAYS KEEP FALLG FOR CALL ME BY YOUR NAME?

André Aciman’s Call Me by Your Name has twice been hailed as a morn gay classic: 2007, when the novel, about an unlikely summer romance between two young men Italy, h bookstor, and this month, as the languoro film adaptatn hs theaters. Still, the fact remas that gay men adore this story about two young scholars, El (Timothée Chalamet) and Oliver (Armie Hammer), who embrace unr the roof of El’s tellectual-bohemian fay for a handful of weeks. Why has Call Me by Your Name attaed such an inic “gay” stat when is anythg but?

When s ma characters seem almost aggrsively isolated om gay culture or polics? When s prec protagonist has to be remd that ’s gche to make fun of people who are openly gay? Here’s one theory: Perhaps we gay boys have fallen for this ungay romance bee ’s so straight—and if we gays love anythg, ’s chasg after straight guys.

The book was penned by a straight thor who says that he has never had a gay relatnship his life, and tells the story of two apparently heteroflexible but largely hetero-leang men who seem to experiment wh same-sex sex only furtively their liv. Ined, all “gay” sex tak place off screen—only boy-girl or boy-u sex happens wh the ame. And the only openly gay characters—a pair of “boyiend tw-ed” amics who vis El’s parents for dner—are portrayed as ridiculo Tweedlm-and-Tweedlee typ.

CALL ME BY YOUR NAME: GEO, BUT IS IT GAY?

However, spe all this, gay dienc have sought ways to embrace this straight-guys-gone-wild narrative as an thentic gay romance agast all available evince. When Call Me by Your Name first me out, for example, my gay iends ma a pastime of qutng Aciman’s sexualy. He’s married wh children, but those gay sex scen are way too real.

'CALL ME BY YOUR NAME' IS THE STRAIGHTT GAY MOVIE EVER

Jt as El search for gay sire his apparently straight csh, gay rears searched for gay sire our beloved thor. One of my favore gay-world mors about Aciman emerged while he was still givg readgs to promote the book New York Cy: I heard that he uldn’t read passag ont of his son. ) I reunt only bee perfectly enpsulat what we gays love about Call Me by Your Name—the notn of a tragilly embattled straight man.

Over the past few weeks, media verage of the film adaptatn has palized on this fascatn wh ambiguo straight men by other means, featurg terviews where the straight lead actors scribe their total fort wh pantomimg gay love on set. So when we nsume this film, we’re willg to ll a gay masterpiece whout any of the ual mands, such as real gay actors playg realistic gay characters some sort of gay cultural or historil ntext. Jt look at Aciman’s meo: In se you missed , he played one member of the hilar actually gay uple the screen adaptatn.

REVIEW: THE GAY ROMANCE CLASSIC “CALL ME BY YOUR NAME” IS AN SENTIAL READ

To be fair, I’m not sure Aciman was ready for this book to bee such a gay sensatn. And really, on some level, the story is not so much homoerotic as is toerotic— tells the story of two boys wh nearly intil tellects and terts who fall love wh mirror imag of themselv and then ll out their own nam durg sex. And yet, here we are, genuflectg as a group before a gay masterpiece that is absolutely not gay.

I myself have three pi: one I bought myself, two were gifts, all now on loan to gays who seemed to need them and also my mom. Reflectg our genue hunger for queer reprentatn mastream, mercial film, this affair on the silver screen has garnered lavish praise om gay dienc and crics. In an Out piece that labeled the film "Movie of the Year, " Bret Easton Ellis scribed Call Me by Your Name as "the movie generatns of gay men have been wag for: the fullt, least nscendg exprsn of gay sire yet brought to mastream film.