Call Me By Your Name (2017)

An idyllic setting. A beautiful story about love. Brilliant acting. Incredible subtlety. Interesting shots. Pretty music. And the 80s--that's the fashion.

It's a supremely Italian movie. What do people do in Italy in the summer? It's a whole lot of nothing. Point made. But isn't it just wonderful to do nothing in an Italian villa? Ride your bike into town. Go swimming. Read. Dance. Eat. It's a privileged showy life complete with domestic servants. They read French/German poetry, play piano, and speak three languages (why do they all speak French, the local girls too? It's unnecessarily extra if only to make them seem more pretentious). 

But let's not let that detract from the careful sensitivity of Guadagnino's directing and the performances of young Chalamet, Hammer and accepting father Stuhlbarg. 

Lady Bird (2017)

What a beautiful little film about growing up. Saoirse Ronan is delightfully quirky as are all her friends and family. The writing is brilliantly hilarious. The relationships are authentic. The movie overall is just so refreshingly honest about adolescence. The ending maybe needed a little bit more closure for Lady Bird. Lady Bird's story is done but Christine's continues. I'm not really sure what specifics I want to say about this movie, but I loved everything about it. I think maybe it's the movies for which words escape you that are the most affecting--to literally be speechless.