Review: The gay romance classic "Call Me By Your Name" is an sential read – The Arber

Contents:

• WHY DO GAYS KEEP FALLG FOR CALL ME BY YOUR NAME?
• REVIEW: THE GAY ROMANCE CLASSIC “CALL ME BY YOUR NAME” IS AN SENTIAL READ
• ‘CALL ME BY YOUR NAME’ IS A GAY LOVE STORY. THE FILM SHOULD HAVE CLUD GAY SEX.
• ‘CALL ME BY YOUR NAME’ IS A GAY LOVE STORY, M THE SELF-TORTURE
• 'CALL ME BY YOUR NAME' IS THE STRAIGHTT GAY MOVIE EVER

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?

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

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. 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. Jt as El search for gay sire his apparently straight csh, gay rears searched for gay sire our beloved thor.

‘CALL ME BY YOUR NAME’ IS A GAY LOVE STORY. THE FILM SHOULD HAVE CLUD GAY SEX.

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. To be fair, I’m not sure Aciman was ready for this book to bee such a gay sensatn.

‘CALL ME BY YOUR NAME’ IS A GAY LOVE STORY, M THE SELF-TORTURE

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.

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

”Perhaps Guadagno’s hancy part bee LGBTQ folks of his generatn (Guadagno is 46 and openly gay) were ls likely to see such blatantly queer narrativ — like LGBTQ characters leadg a film, as opposed to beg relegated to one-ler sikicks — reprented popular culture. However, claimg that omtg explicly gay sex will bolster the movie’s abily to “create this powerful universaly” is ditive of how media ensnc queer life and is herently shamg of gay her recent book “How to Fall Love Wh Anyone, ” Mandy Len Catron wr: “When to love, I’m no longer terted annihilatg the differenc.