Let us Anticipate "Call Me By Your Name"

Curious to see how you'll react to The Ornithologist.

Brought up the "what's some good white twink content" with my bf last night and he said The Outs, which I haven't seen

there's about to be an all-star Broadway revival of The Boys in the Band

I have not read any Bowles besides The Sheltering Sky

Read his short stories –  a model of clarity and terror.

Ya, "Pages" and also "A Distant Episode" are his two finest things imo

I haven’t read any Bowles at all. Just reserved the collection that “Pages from Cold Point” is in at the library.

Oh and also, duh, I kind of half-mentioned it earlier but the two Alan Hollinghurst books I read ("The Swimming Pool Libraries", and "The Line Of Beauty") are extremely good depictions of white twinkdom-- even if both Will Beckwith and Nick Guest are mid-20s.

Hollinghurst is fucking brilliant imo. He has a way of creating these sexual worlds that are super titillating, but then deflating and upending their mystique by the end. The way "The Line Of Beauty" ended was crazy... after an entire novel's worth of snorting and fucking his way across London, Nick's whole abuse-of-privilege is laid out before him, ironically, in a homophobic rage by his patron-- (the "It's a homo trick" monologue.) Having Nick's real abuses of power described in homophobic language was really effective-- the criticisms were spot-on, and yet the language was so homophobic as to create this magical balance: the balance of "Nick has been a terrible person" with "Nick is subject to inhuman treatment as a British gay man during the AIDS crisis"-- it's this mix of disgust-at-his-tyranny and also empathy-for-his-lot that really gets to the heart of my feelings, at least, toward young white gays.

The fact too that Nick has been surrounded by AIDS for the latter half of the novel but only thinks to go get himself tested in the last few pages was... really amazing too. Contained all the feelings-of-indestructibility, lack-of-personal-accountability, and yet still we're sympathetic toward him because duh AIDS is a fucking travesty.

idk, I love that book, liked the BBC adaptation OK but would love to see a proper version of it on screen

The Line of Beauty is one of my favorite novels of the last 20 years; we may have discussed it once, goon

Possibly, yeah. I need to re-read it, I only read it once (when it won the Booker) and I was 25 at the time and had AIDS nightmares for a week.

it's probably my favourite novel from this millennia. I don't like The SPL very much but it's a debut. The Spell is the underrated one.

I also liked The Folding Star

The Folding Star has a CMBYN-esque plot but reversed. It has one of the hottest sex scenes I've read in serious lit.

lol yes!

I also really liked the echoes of Tonio Kröger and Death In Venice

and apparently (although I have never read it) Bruges-La-Mort by Georges Rodenbach

but yes, I've always read Folding... as a version of Death In Venice for our vulgar age. Luc is as blank as Tadzio, it's all projection. Thankfully, other than weekly checking the facebook page of a young actor I worked on a play with, I'm past that stage in my life.

lol

I love this bit on the film from Walter Chaw's year-end round up:

There's a conversation between lovers I come back to a lot where they ask why they wasted so much time in the beginning and then tell their story to each other over and over. I do that with my wife sometimes. I start with "Remember when we met?" or, "Remember our first date, when..." I do it as a bulwark against the realities of the day-to-day. It makes me feel good. Another conversation, between father and son, is justifiably lauded as one of the great moments in 2017 cinema--maybe of any year. It's become a model for how I want to be as a parent: open enough to be able to be vulnerable with my children--to show them where I've been hurt, as well as where I'm strong.

So this is everything cinema should be i've decided, 10/10, as good as faultless. Minor gripe; i do wish characters would stop doing that 'look into the camera in the closing shot' thing. Happens in The Florida Project too iirc. Nit picking though.

It has been a wonderful time, coming up with new names for Timothy Swiss Chalet, Timberly Chaturbate

In an interview designed to piss off goon, Frank Ocean talks to Chalamet.

FO The time period of 20th Century Women seems close to Call Me By Your Name, that ’80s time period. Did you get into these past eras of fashion and shit when you were doing the film?

TC Absolutely. I’m a total “nostalgist” and Call Me By Your Name’s director, Luca, grew up in that time period. In fact, the book is set in ’88 and he changed it to ’83 because he said that was the year in your life you can hear music from. In the movie, there’s Talking Heads, The Psychedelic Furs, or just the Bach or Beethoven—those are all songs from Luca’s youth, what it was like for him in Italy in the ’80s. Also, in 1988, the AIDS crisis had already hit and that was part of the reasoning for making [the film] a little bit earlier too, so it wasn’t as intense, and could be a little more utopic. What a tragedy for movies now that if you want to be contemporary, phones have to be involved, with texting and FaceTime. I don’t know if [the characters in] Call Me By Your Name would ever have that relationship if there was passive-aggressive commenting and “likes.” They actually had to talk, figure each other out, and struggle with their emotions.

If he wasn't a client I'd tweet that FO'd obviously been catfished into that interview

TC otm on electronic living

did someone itt post that article about how the 'limited release' distribution plan is outdated and really screwed this movie and The Florida Project? it's strange, the more straightforward indie / art house theater here is playing every awards season movie (they've had Lady Bird since early November), CMBYN opened at the end of December and it's already gone. at least CMBYN got nominations- back in October I was sure The Florida Project would be nominated multiple times.

yeah the studio badly fucked up this film's rollout. The good press built and crested just after Thanksgiving. It didn't open in limited release in Miami – where gay films do as well as T-shirt vendors – until the weekend before Xmas; it didn't go wide until the second week of January.

Didn't hurt Phantom Thread any.

Lady Bird has made $45 million and counting on a $10 million budget.

I saw Lady Bird a day after it opened here in the middle of November, and it was sold out. from what I've heard that's basically maintained for 2+ months. Phantom Thread only opened in NY & LA in 2017, its rollout was a little bit later than others. hype and word of mouth for Phantom Thread hasn't peaked yet, quite the opposite, feel like it's getting stronger every day. Also Phantom Thread benefits from people seeing it multiple times, to be expected from any PTA movie.

It's not so surprising that Lady Bird would have more universal appeal than Florida Project and CMBYN, no?

(I doubt Phantom Thread is going to make much more than $25m when all's said and done.)

absolutely

where is Phantom Thread at right now box office wise? aren't most of PTA's movies loss leaders?

(absolutely re: broad appeal of Lady Bird)

it's made $15 million and doing very well per screen. At one of our art houses, I learned last weekend, it's been sold out every screening since early January.

PTA, even adjusted for inflation, does not dominate box-office charts ...

Rank	Title (click to view)	Studio	Adjusted Gross	Unadjusted Gross	Release
1	Boogie Nights	NL	$52,801,300	$26,400,640	10/10/97
2	There Will Be Blood	ParV	$51,433,500	$40,222,514	12/26/07
3	Magnolia	NL	$38,309,100	$22,455,976	12/17/99
4	Punch-Drunk Love	SonR	$28,194,500	$17,844,216	10/11/02
5	The Master	Wein.	$18,955,600	$16,377,274	9/14/12
6	Phantom Thread	Focus	$14,697,700	$14,697,709	12/25/17
7	Inherent Vice	WB	$9,151,100	$8,110,975	12/12/14
8	Hard Eight	Gold.	$445,100	$222,559	2/28/97

all threads are box office

poison

Anyway, my point was that I don't think the release was particularly fucked up for CMBYN and I think it did as well as it probably could've ever been expected to do, financially.

haha holy shit Inherent Vice only made 9 mil??

xp maybe enthusiasm for it just calmed down naturally. I think there's much more of a case to be made for a studio fuck-up re: The Florida Project, which like I said, seemed like an obvious Oscar movie back in October.

Nah, I had that one pegged to be a one-nomination wonder the moment I saw it.

(More a comment on the average Oscar voter, not the movie's worth.)

I wasn't crazy about it either but Dafoe's performance & the topical subject matter seemed like a safe bet.

but yeah i see what you mean

couple that with my powerful voodoo spells counteracting the film's commercial prospects

Alfred fucked up Florida Project

that was MY Florida Project.

your contest project

https://www.omaze.com/experiences/call-me-by-your-name-oscars-party

watched this last night. knew i'd be a sucker for the story but i thought the movie was best in its silence moments. some of the interactions between the two were a little stiff i thought, and i didn't think either really sold their character's reluctance well. there was a lot of subtle stuff i enjoyed tho... it was a well made and thoughtful movie, more gay than i expected in some regards but also a little too conservative. i don't begrudge all the praise but i get why it's hit a bit of a ceiling come awards season.

Was Elio ever reluctant? The only moment he is happens when he finally gets what he wants.

the way the conclusion of the peach scene, at least for a second. but it was really more of armie's job and he wasn't great at it.

it was 1983, some things were a little more conservative.