My main reason for reviewing these two films together is that they cover a similar subject matter, and I saw them on the same day. But I wanted to show you the two posters for these films side by side, because it wasn't until I searched for the posters that I realised how eerily similar they are. Same colour blue, same wistful look up to the sky from one of the main characters, same colour and similar font of the titles. Weird.
Anyway, allow me to start with Cameron Post as that was the film I watched first. A film set in the 90s about a girl - Cameron Post (played brilliantly by Chloe Grace Moretz who impresses me more and more each time I see her) - who is discovered to be a lesbian by her religious family and promptly sent off to God's Promise, a camp for troubled teens, in the hope of converting her into a straight and God fearing member of society.
This might not be a true story, but the fact that this did happen to many kids and is still happening around the world today makes me really fucking angry. The story is well told and has lighter and also incredibly dark moments too but it handles everything with sensitivity and the acting on show is top notch.
I definitely felt like they could have done more to set the time period for film, as although it's a 90s set movie, there were only a few moments where my brain remembered that fact. For the most part I felt like this could have been set in the present day. I don't know if that's because the 90s doesn't feel that long ago to me, or because I know things like the conversion camp still happen, but I felt more like it was because the filmmakers hadn't done enough to make it feel like a period piece.
Having said that, I didn't feel like this detracted from the film, more that I would have just liked to have seen more 90s references in there and had it feel more like a 90s set film.
The acting as I said is all top notch. This is Chloe Grace Moretz's film, make no mistake, and she is fantastic in the lead role. But she is ably supported by Forrest Goodluck and Sasha Lane who play two of Cameron's alley's in the camp, whilst Jennifer Ehle (remember her? Where has she been for the last 20 years) and John Gallagher Jr are both great as the leaders of the camp.
I think it's an important film on many levels, it continues the conversation around the importance of mental health in young adults, and that they should have a safe space to express themselves, as well as adults that they can trust. It also does a great job of not talking down to the audience it's aimed at, and doesn't shy away from showing them sex scenes and pretty horrifying scenes too, but at no point do those scenes seem gratuitous or unnecessary.
8/10
Call Me By Your Name is a film I'd wanted to see since it was released last summer but I'd somehow missed it at the cinema. It was shown on an open air screening this summer but I happened to be in London on the night it was on and so missed it again.
Now that I've seen it I'm quite glad I didn't go out of my way to pay to see it in the cinema as I don't think anything would have been gained by seeing the film on the big screen.
I've heard such wonderful things about Call Me By Your Name, but unlike Cameron Post which is also a period set film and about a young person coming to terms with their sexuality, the sex scenes in this do feel slightly gratuitous and unnecessary.
Maybe it's because of the way the film is shot like some art history experiment that the sex scenes just feel really out of place. Yes it's got stunning scenery, yes it's got a rousing score that would impress the harshest of critics, but where is the film's heart?
I found the film over long, and quite dull until it came to Elio and Oliver actually getting together and then everything seemed rushed. I assume this was intentional, because the characters waste their summer together by denying how they both feel, and then when they realise they want to be together the summer is over. It's a great metaphor but it doesn't really make for a very interesting film.
I felt like this film also suffered from the same time period setting issues as Cameron Post, but not quite on the same scale. Yes this does feel like a period piece, but not necessarily an 80s set film. Maybe because it's set in rural Italy so you don't have the same pop culture references that would be available in movies set in the USA for example? I'm not sure but I know that again there were only moments when I remembered it was set in the 80s, and those moments were few and far between.
I also had trouble buying into the relationship between Oliver and Elio. I could see why Elio would fall for Oliver, I mean who wouldn't fall for Armie Hammer? But I really struggled to see why Oliver would feel anything for scrawny and underage Elio who if anything, seemed to act even more childishly than his age would allow. From what the film showed you they barely spent any time together too, so it's not even plausible that they fell in love with each other's personalities over time. It just didn't work for me.
I really wanted to like it, and I didn't think that was something I'd need to work on, I assumed it was a given. How wrong I was.
5/10
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