Failed Oscar Campaigns: "Call Me By Your Name" (2017)

Scene from Call Me By Your Name

As awards seasons pick up, so do the campaigns to make your film have the best chances at the Best Picture race. However, like a drunken stupor, sometimes these efforts come off as trying too hard and leave behind a trailer of ridiculous flamboyance. Join me on every other Saturday for a highlight of the failed campaigns that make this season as much about prestige as it does about train wrecks. Come for the Harvey Weinstein comments and stay for the history. It's going to be a fun time as I explore cinema's rich history of attempting to matter.

The Movie

Call Me By Your Name (2017)

Directed By: Luca Guadagnino

Written By: James Ivory (Screenplay), Andre Aciman (Novel)

Starring: Armie Hammer, Timothee Chalamet, Michael Stuhlbarg

Genre: Drama, Romance

Running Time: 132 minutes

Summary: In 1980s Italy, a romance blossoms between a seventeen year-old student and the older man hired as his father's research assistant.

The Movie

Among the names to consider in this year's Oscar race, there is one that is looking to make a return visit. Timothee Chalamet is currently winning over audiences with his drug addiction drama Beautiful Boy, which is looking to get him his second Best Actor nomination after last year's Call Me By Your Name. Similarly, director Luca Guadagnino is following up his Oscar-nominated clout with the horror remake Suspiria, which is less likely to receive any major awards buzz. However, the fact that both were anticipated to be in the race for months now is a telling sign of the power of this 2017 summer love drama in which Chalamet falls in love with Armie Hammer in a rare drama about a young bisexual trying to find his identity. For audiences, it was a bit more divisive than that, proving to either be one of the most powerful depictions of love, or a strangely timed film about older men preying on youth. 

Even if the film isn't a box office smash, there's a following to the film that has Guadagnino already contemplating a sequel estimated for a 2020 release. It's a project that has been in the works since 2007 and follows in the director's spiritual trilogy of films about desire (the others being I Am Love and A Bigger Splash). With all of the build-up to its eventual release, the film was a victim of too much praise with critics praising the film for several months before audiences could see it. Memes were shared and inside jokes became an exhausting landmine on Twitter. The wait to see it was so painful that some would argue that it caused the film to lose interest with audiences, also in part because a gay love story was one of the least interesting premises of late 2017 films, which included the sci-fi romance The Shape of Water and sports dramedy I, Tonya. They were all films with a ton more appeal than two lovers roaming around Italy on a summer vacation while talking about philosophy and architecture.

Yet the film has something more universal in the subtext. It's a film that captures what it feels like to fall in love for the first time, having those sexual awakenings and feeling like the world is incredible. It's one of those films that succeeded in gaining Oscar traction, but many would argue was snubbed for others. Along with Lady Bird, it was the film that helped to launch Chalamet as a serious actor who was taken seriously. However, his co-stars in Hammer and Michael Stuhlbarg were considered snubbed on Oscar nominations day for varying reasons. With all of that said, the film shined with exuberance of a romance that was in some ways doomed all along. How could two men from distant locations stay in love when there's no way to see each other at the end of the summer? Guadagnino brought power to the film's emotional core, though not without some controversy. While Moonlight proved that LGBT films could win Best Picture, Call Me By Your Name proved that this was still a bit of a fluke.

The Campaign

Like most good indies, the film had a big success when it premiered at Sundance Film Festival in January 2017. Considering that Guadagnino was coming off of the critically acclaimed A Bigger Splash, there was a certain excitement around the film. With Sony Pictures Classics buying the film rights for $6 million, the film was already going to go further than most of its competition. Following the Oscar-winning success of Moonlight, the rules for what a Best Picture winner could be were changing drastically. If a drama about a gay black man could win, what else could? Call Me By Your Name may have little DNA shared with Barry Jenkins' film, but there were enough similarities to prove that the film would at least be able to make it to Oscar night with some nominations.

The film was so successful that it had a pretty well built-in fan base that praised its name on Twitter. While there's no clear chronology to what followed, the film spawned a lot of conversation. The most innocent was about Chalamet: an actor who had been appearing in films for many years, but most of them were under the radar (Miss Stevens, The Adderall Diaries) and his biggest film (Interstellar) was in a fairly minimal role. Here was a chance to see the actor, considered one of the next greats, to shine. He brought a charisma to the film that many found undeniable. During press rounds, Chalamet would go on to comment that he became an actor because of Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight, which he found compelling. He was a very empathetic actor, already proving that he could be a charming addition to Oscar season. Meanwhile, there was a lot of talk of Hammer and Stuhlbarg getting some recognition, though Hammer's long held notion of being too pretty boy proved once again to be a hindrance. It also helped that Lady Bird would continue to make him a prominent figure in Oscar talks, which has its own interesting stories. 

Among the two most noteworthy scenes in the film that were raised in conversation was Chalamet's sexual frustration scene with a peach. In one moment, he penetrates it as an act of lust. Along with many wondering if he actually did it (he did), there was talk that this scene would haunt Chalamet for the rest of his career, having people force him to sign peaches wherever he went. The other scene would come to be known as "Dance Party" where Hammer and Chalamet are seen dancing to Psychedelic Furs' "Love My Way." This was released on October 11 as part of National Coming Out Day. The video lead to its own meme, which included people posting the same video with the actors dancing to a variety of songs.If nothing else, these two moments were enough leverage to keep the film going as a social media sensation. It also helped that the trailer was well received and that the playing of "Love My Way" lead to a huge increase of the song's playing on various music streaming services.

In more controversial news, mainstream audiences were quick to attach themselves to a debate over whether it was an ethical romance. This story broke around the time of the Kevin Spacey controversy, where he was accused of abusing young male actors. Considering that Spacey's career was ruined, many saw Hammer's "significant" age gap of 10 years to be a bit repulsive and hypocritical of the liberal media. Why praise one relationship with an age difference and condemn another? This argument, which lead many to not even see the film, didn't consider that the relationship was consented in the film where Spacey's wasn't (that was more of an abuse of power). With that said, actor James Woods was one of the more vocal protesters of the film, claiming that it was chipping away the last of human decency. Hammer responded via Twitter, acknowledging that when the actor was 60 that he was dating a 20-year-old. This lead to more people accusing Woods of poor dating habits, including Amber Tamblyn when she suggested that, as a 16-year-old, she was hit on by him.

This also lead to a general ethics debate around marketing. The film released a poster featuring Hammer and Chalamet looking into the sky. It was quaint and simple. However, a later poster featured Chalamet with Esther Garrett - a far less significant character. Many found it as a way of "straight-washing" the marketing and selling it as a conventional love story. Considering that it was also being banned in various countries predictably because of its gay themes, the film held controversy for a variety of reasons now. It was a miracle then that the film premiered with some of the highest per-screen averages of the year. The acclaim around the film would continue to carry the film, though its eventual wide release in its ninth weekend wouldn't be able to crack more than $1.9 million despite a Top 10 box office debut. However, websites like Fandango reported an uptick in ticket sales when the film received Oscar nominations. Still, the film was considered an Oscar risk when it failed to win any Golden Globes. The film was also part of a problematic backlash when several screeners leaked online in December 2017, which would also include I, Tonya and Lady Bird. How much this impacted box office is unknown.

Call Me By Your Name was an indie film that would prove to survive on the strength of its fans. Those who loved the film needed to keep its name in the public's consciousness without it fading into silly talk about its poor depiction of love. With a decent box office run to its credit, it was going into Oscar season with a lot of fervor. Even then, it had to compete with the more acclaimed Lady Bird for attention. Still, the film's success lead to talk of a sequel in 2020, which would be modeled after the Francois Truffaut series on Antoine Doinel. Even if there were films that man preferred, the film ended 2017 as one of the most talked about films of the year. It had controversy, memes, and a powerful breakthrough performance in Chalamet to its credit. It was everything that a film of its stature needed to make a difference. The only question now was how well things would go.

The Payoff

Despite everything, Call Me By Your Name proved to be a modest hit at the Oscars with four nominations. This included Best Picture along with an acting nomination for Chalamet, a Best Adapted Screenplay for James Ivory, and Best Original Song for Sufjan Stevens. Stevens, who notoriously is shy about working with Hollywood, found a lot to love about working with Guadagnino and contributed two songs, including nominee "Mystery of Love." Even then, he wasn't shy about admitting how honored he felt to be included in the list, even praising Coco's "Remember Me" (which would win the category) as a brilliant song number. While not connected to the film, Stevens took this opportunity to introduce a song called "Tonya Harding," which wasn't even considered for the I, Tonya film. The film's soundtrack received a boost, becoming a rare vinyl hit selling over 9,000 copies. It was evidence that the film was going to be just fine, even if it didn't win.

On the night before the Oscars ceremony, the cast and crew held a dinner with a lucky winner from a contest that they held through Omaze. The plan was to raise money for the Trevor Project and AIDS Monument. This included other prizes, but was used as a chance for the film to use its platform for good. The contest was started by a video featuring Chalamet and Hammer, who joked that the party would lead the winner to "have a few drinks" and get completely wasted. The charity ended up being a success and was noteworthy as one of the few films to use their Oscar attention for good. Considering that the cast and crew had proven to be sociable and open to the public over the many months of marketing, this was a nice capper to a long season of fans seeing the film and spreading the word to everyone that they knew.

The film was pretty low for most people's expectations in spite of the growing celebrity around Chalamet. Of the film's nominations, it would only win one for Ivory: a screenwriter who had been nominated four times total. At the age of 89, he became the oldest Oscar winner in history. To prove his love for the film, which he had been working on for almost a decade, he wore a shirt featuring a drawn version of Chalamet from a scene in the conclusion of the film. While many found the exclusion of Hammer and Stuhlbarg's nominations as a bit disappointing, the idea of having Chalamet get nominated felt like a good compromise. It was the start of what many predicts to be several more. Still, Ivory feels proud of the film and is glad that it received all of the acclaim that it did. 

However, that wasn't the last that was heard about Ivory about the film. Having dedicated most of the past decade to the film, he felt that there was no need for a sequel. He felt that the film's ending was satisfactory, proving to be a good end to the story. He was also critical of Guadagnino for not including more explicit scenes, including frontal nudity. The debate between director and writer would continue, as Guadagnino felt that nudity would only add so much to the story while keeping it intimate and about performances would elevate the themes. There were a notable amount of deleted scenes from the film, which included a scene that the director felt was "too precious." With all of that said, both were happy with how the film turned out in spite of their few disagreements.

Even if Call Me By Your Name was on the lower side of Oscar season, it proved to be one of the secret successes with audiences. Even for those that disliked the film or didn't care to see it, there was attention to the film that lead to a lot of interesting conversations, including some by the cast members. While the audience is to determine whether its central romance is beautiful or gross, it is a story that captured its audience with an affection that was undeniable, being able to carry itself through months of inside jokes, memes, and hailing Chalamet as an up and coming success. Considering that Beautiful Boy is looking to bring him back to the Oscar circle, there's a good chance that he will fulfill their prophecy. Just don't expect to see Suspiria in the race, as it's considered to be even more divisive and far from the Oscar caliber of recent horror like Get Out. Still, it's one of those great examples of a small film that could. If only there were more of them.