Why Call Me By Your Name Will Win Best Picture
'Tis the week before the Oscars, and 9 films are ramping up their campaigns in a last-minute push for the top prize of them all, Best Picture. The biggest award has the potential to be either one of the most anticlimactic or most surprising result in recent years. The former is true, because really only two films have won any of the prizes on the awards circuit, and one of those [Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water] is a notable step ahead in the sweepstakes. However, neither frontrunner is a traditional winner, nor is without controversy; those facts, as well as the Oscars' less predictable preferential voting system means that no nominee can be counted out of the race. Birdman's and Spotlight's upsets in 2015 and 16, and Moonlight's stunner last year taught us to expect the unexpected, so we're here to give fans of all 9 nominees reason to believe on Sunday.
Call Me By Your Name is based off of the novel with the same title by André Aciman. Newcomer Timothée Chalamet and real-life-disney-prince-in-a-track-suit Armie Hammer play opposite each other in the love story to end all love stories. Filmed in breathtaking Crema, Italy, Call Me By Your Name is a personal and touching coming of age story about not just one protagonist, but multiple characters. An effortlessly beautiful tale of two young men exploring themselves and their feelings for each other renders the audience's heart both broken and restored a few times, an emotional journey for all involved. In two particular instances, I expect, the entire cinema was weeping together, and it is these moments in which one can clearly see a Best Picture winner. One such scene was delivered masterfully from snubbed actor Michael Stuhlbarg [he was in THREE Best Picture nominated films and wasn't nominated for ANYTHING! #justice4Stuhlbarg], whose heartfelt speech acted as the thesis for the film. The other moment of impact came with the ending credits rolling over Chalamet’s Oscar-worthy scene by the fireplace. The more the scene carried on, the more we sat in silence, the more Sufjan Stevens' music began to play, the more we cried together. The Academy loves to award straight people playing gay people and loves to award the work of white actors, so in that regard, this is a textbook Academy Award film. There are countless other elements of past winners, too: a respected director (Luca Guadagnino), an adaptation, a scenic pasture, a good story propelled by its simplicity, and wonderful acting all around. Call Me By Your Name, although not performing well at the box office, especially compared to other nominees, is critically acclaimed and has had quite the run in the award circuit the last year. It’s not probable that Call Me By Your Name walks away with the top prize but word of mouth recently plunged Moonlight and Birdman forward and there's no reason to think it can't do the same for this film. What's more, I don’t think anyone would be upset with an upset. Now who’s giving to my fund to help me buy my summer home?