While Hollywood is typically miserable at representing LGBTQ characters, a new drama that made waves at Sundance is putting a complex, queer relationship at the forefront of its storyline—and from the looks of the first trailer, it’s going to be a knockout.
Sony dropped the first trailer for Call Me by Your Name on Monday, offering a glimpse at director Luca Guadagnino’s adaptation of André Aciman’s 2007 novel. The story follows one summer in 80s Italy when an American student named Oliver (The Social Network‘s Armie Hammer) arrives at a small town in the countryside to study art. The visiting scholar ends up palling around with his professor’s younger son Elio (Homeland‘s Timothée Chalamet), but the two tend to butt heads.
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The trailer offers a lush, dreamlike look at flash points in the two men’s relationship—Elio feels miffed by Oliver’s brusqueness, makes fun of his manners, and admires his confidence with women. But after weeks spent sharing the same house, Elio and Oliver grow closer and find themselves exploring their sexuality with each other.
Guadagnino—known for directing I Am Love and A Bigger Splash—adapted Call Me by Your Name from Aciman’s seminal novel, which was widely lauded and won the Lambda Literary Awards’ honor for gay fiction. The film premiered at Sundance back in January, where it received a standing ovation and drew praise for its cinematography and stellar writing.
“This movie will forever stay with me,” Hammer told Vulture back in January. “We moved for several months to a tiny town in Italy where no one spoke English, giving up everything about our normal lives back home and committing to this.”
So far, it looks like that commitment paid off.
Watch the trailer for Call Me by Your Name above, and catch the film in theaters on November 24.
