‘Call Me By Your Name’ affirms the power of sex

“Call Me By Your Name” is an emphatic celebration of the mystery and power of sexuality, and all its attendant danger, exaltation and tenderness. Here in a small, Italian town, close to the sea — where Hellenic statues have a way of washing up on shore — the sun, the water and the surrounding beauty reinforce lust and longing; and everything is suffused with a charged, pagan innocence.

It’s the least Puritan of movies, pre-Christian in its sensibility, and will perhaps seem jarring, arriving at this curious time in our cultural life.