Excitement finally arrives in Episode 4, after Craig, the eldest of their friend group, proposes to his girlfriend on the eve of his deployment to Afghanistan, and a shotgun wedding devolves into 45 minutes of swimming, slow-motion dancing and spaghetti-slinging. The first two episodes cover an identical timeframe – viewed initially from Fraser’s perspective, then Caitlin’s – but barely differ in their interpretation of events. (Gvasalia could have costumed Sevigny, who manages to look chic even in her fatigues.) By the time Fraser begins muttering ‘Michiko Kakutani’ under his breath in a jumper that reads ‘FUTURISTIC TEENAGERS’, these pretentious appeals start to feel a little desperate. In another scene, Fraser flirts nervously with a hot cadet over a library copy of Ocean Vuong’s Night Sky with Exit Wounds (2016), and later proclaims his love for Demna Gvasalia, the creative director of Balenciaga and founder of Vetements. Tracks by David Bowie, Klaus Nomi and Frank Ocean punctuate a languorous score by Dev Hynes, who Fraser buys tickets to see live in Bologna. The show is packed with voguish references.

Both Grazier and Seamón have a mesmerizing physicality upon which Guadagnino lavishes much attention, from Fraser’s clumsy tromp to Caitlin’s elegant dives into the lagoon. They study before-and-after photos of gender transitions online with hushed awe. There, Fraser befriends his tomboy neighbour, Caitlin Poythress (Jordan Kristine Seamón), and together the teens explore their latent queerness, guarding each other’s secrets from their rowdier friends. The series follows moody 14-year-old Fraser Wilson (Jack Dylan Grazier) to a US military compound in Chioggia, Italy, where he moves with his mother, Sarah (Chloë Sevigny), the new base commander, and her wife, Maggie (Alice Braga). Guadagnino’s first foray into television, similarly, has a self-reflexive phrase of five monosyllables for its title and, like #CMBYN, is saturated with a warm yellow light reminiscent of the Instagram filter Valencia. The film made Timotheé Chalamet an international superstar, a peach an internet celebrity and a story about pederasty a surprise Oscar winner.

We Are Who We Are (2020), a new HBO limited series by Luca Guadagnino, would love to capitalize on the success of the Italian director’s famed romantic drama, Call Me By Your Name (2017).

Who we are hbo