I watched Call Me By Your Name yesterday (Redbox rental). Certainly enjoyed it. Well made, great acting. I especially liked the last 20 minutes or so.
I know plenty of 24 year old males who are as masculine and mature looking as Armie Hammer so I didn’t personally find it a stretch to believe him to be that age. I also found the Elio character to be quite worldly and sophisticated for 17 despite the physical youthfulness of Timothee Chalamet who was actually 21 when the movie was made (now 22). Elio was also sexually experienced previous to his relationship with Oliver, the relationship was consensual, and from my viewpoint, Elio pursued Oliver more aggressively than the other way around. Unless you’ve actually watched the film, and factor in the content and historical timing, I really don’t think it is fair to opine on this aspect of the movie. Some might watch the movie and still feel uncomfortable with it given the age difference but it was and remains legal and I did not view it as predatory. Besides, the Spacey incidents involve a boy of 14, were not consensual, and were numerous. Apples and oranges. Context and details do matter.
Um, there were around 30 accusers of Spacey of various ages under 30 so that won’t fly. You are referring to a single incident out of the many, many incidents.
Not apples and oranges by any means. Adult male (or could be female) with teen = predatory. Full stop.
I don’t care how they wrapped the package for popular consumption; the contents are rotten. No adult should have sex with a teen, period. I don’t care if the teen is chasing him down the street. Teens aren’t fully developed in judgment until around the mid-twenties.
This is squarely on the adult to do the right thing. It’s not acceptable to pretty it up and massage a few details to make it legal for Hollywood consumption. We know what Hollywood is all about now in terms of sexual proclivities. Enough reports have come out.
“Um, there were around 30 accusers of Spacey of various ages under 30 so that won’t fly. You are referring to a single incident out of the many, many incidents.”
I think you missed the part of my post that also pointed out Spacey’s multiple transgressions and the lack of consent, @TranquilMind. It is apples to oranges, IMO.
“Teens aren’t fully developed in judgment until around the mid-twenties.”
Than they will no longer be teens? So was the Oliver character still not fully developed at 24, just reaching his mid-20s? So a 19 year old and a 22 year old having a sexual relationship is also verboten in your book? Of course there is a lot of gray when talking about what age differences are acceptable when it comes to relationships and what pushes the boundaries and what doesn’t.
I still think you need to see the movie before commenting on how it was handled. It may or may not change your mind but at least it would therefore be an informed opinion based on actually seeing how it was portrayed.
Lack of consent is irrelevant when you are speaking of a power imbalance, a situation inherent with an adult and a teen. This is all about the power imbalance, which is why we don’t - in a normal world - advocate mature adult relationships with teenagers.
The older character LOOKS mid-thirties, which was quite intentional.
I most certainly do not need to see adults having sex with teens, even Hollywood-approved recreated sex for the prurient interest of the viewers, Ugh. No thanks. I don’t need to do or watch abhorrent things to know they are wrong. The honest critics knew it was wrong as well, which is why they articulated discomfort.
The reason I think someone who seemed a few years younger than Armie Hammer might have been better is that I had the feeling that this was supposed to be more youthful, romantic relationship on both their parts, not just on Ellio’s, although yes, with an age difference. This feeling was bolstered by the way Ellio’s father talked about the relationship. Maybe I am off base.
I don’t care at all how old either of the actors actual are., and I reject the whole “it’s creepy” thing.
@alexgrin I read a pretty convincing theory that Elisa is related to, or descends from, the same type of underwater creature. There are suggestions such as her general affinity for water and choosing to masturbate in water in the beginning, as well as that scene where it seems she is controlling the water on the bus window. She was found as a baby in the water with three cuts on her neck that they sewed up - maybe those were gills? Maybe her muteness is because she isn’t fully human. I don’t think there’s supposed to be a clear-cut answer but I think the implications are there to make you think. That helps explain the seemingly random attraction, because maybe she sensed that this was someone like her.
@rebeccar and @alexgrin it also seemed to me that she had some monster DNA in her. That’s why she dreams of the water at the beginning. And I agree the cuts were almost certainly some kind of protogill. Perhaps the monsters took care of her and then put her back on land because she was too human to live with them? We don’t know, but I don’t think the attraction was random. She was drawn to the monster for a reason.
I’d love to get @TranquilMind 's take on the classic Howard Hawks film To Have and Have Not. The film that made Lauren Bacall a star. The film with “put your lips together and blow.”
Or Tess, a one-time multiple Oscar nominee (and winner, but not the big ones) also. It was Nastassja Kinski’s first film in English. She was paired with two 30-something men, one exploitative the other not.
JHS: "I’d love to get @TranquilMind 's take on the classic Howard Hawks film To Have and Have Not. The film that made Lauren Bacall a star. The film with “put your lips together and blow.”
Or Tess, a one-time multiple Oscar nominee (and winner, but not the big ones) also. It was Nastassja Kinski’s first film in English. She was paired with two 30-something men, one exploitative the other not."
Bogart was 44 and married when he began having an affair with the 19 year old Bacall. Adulterous and a lech. She was living with her mother, as I recall, and as a mother, I would have removed my daughter from Hollywood, had it been possible. Maybe she tried. Who knows? Not acceptable. They had only 12 years together before he died.
I walked out of Tess. It’s been decades so I don’t remember much except that it was such a badly done movie that we couldn’t help laughing. I remember later reading the actress had been molested as a child. And gee, it was Roman Polanski that gave her the part, so…yeah, awful. I’m sure that had the movie been good enough to stay, I would have the same objection to the age and power imbalance.