January 18, 2018 · 3 min read

‘Call Me By Your Name,’ ‘Shape of Water’ play at the Ross

Courtesy photo

Directed by Guillermo del Toro, "The Shape of Water" opens Jan. 19 at the Ross. The film features Sally Hawkins and Doug Jones in a Cold War-era romance.

Two new films — one an Academy Award hopeful, the other a Cold War romance directed by Guillermo del Toro — open Jan. 19 at Nebraska’s Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center.

A favorite for multiple Oscar nominations, “Call Me By Your Name” is a tale of first love based on André Aciman’s novel of the same title. The film, directed by Luca Guadagnino, is set in north Italy in the summer of 1983. The story follows Elio Perlman (played by Timothée Chalamet), a precocious 17-year-old American-Italian boy who spends his days in the family’s 17th century villa transcribing and playing classical music, reading and flirting with his friend Marzia (Esther Garrel).

Elio enjoys a close relationship with his father (Michael Stuhlbarg), an eminent professor who specializes in Greco-Roman culture, and his mother (Amira Casar), a translator. While Elio’s sophistication and intellectual gifts suggest he is already a fully-fledged adult, there is much that yet remains innocent and unformed about him, particularly about matters of the heart.

One day, Oliver (Armie Hammer), a charming American scholar working on his doctorate, arrives as the annual summer intern tasked with helping Elio’s father. Amid the sun-drenched splendor of the setting, Elio and Oliver discover the heady beauty of awakening desire over the course of a summer that will alter their lives forever.

“Call Me By Your Name” is rated R for sexual content, nudity and some language. The film shows through Feb. 1.

Trailer: "Call Me By Your Name"

Also opening is “The Shape of Water,” an other-worldly fable set in the early 1960s against the backdrop of Cold War-era America.

In the hidden, high-security government laboratory where she works, Elisa (Sally Hawkins) is lonely and trapped in a life of isolation. Her life is changed forever when she and co-worker Zelda (Octavia Spencer) discover a secret classified experiment.

The cast also features Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Michael Stuhlbarg and Doug Jones.

“The Shape of Water,” which is rated R for sexual content, graphic nudity, violence and language, shows through Feb. 1 at the Ross.