The 90th Academy Awards ceremony is taking place on March 4 and this year nine films have been selected for the much coveted Best Picture category. Among them is "Call Me By Your Name," a coming-of-age romance between Elio, a precocious teenager, and Oliver, a 24-year-old student who comes to stay with his family.

The film is directed by Luca Guadagnino, best known for the first two parts of his "Desire Trilogy" which began in 2009 with "I Am Love" and continued in 2015 with "A Bigger Splash," two tactile, erotic films with impeccable casts – "I Am Love" starred Tilda Swinton, who learned Italian for the role, and "A Bigger Splash" had an ensemble which included her again, alongside Ralph Fiennes, Matthias Schoenaerts and 50 Shades' Dakota Johnson – that were filmed in the lush Italian countryside.

Ann Hornaday, writing for The Washington Post, says the film is "almost sinfully enjoyable” because of how the film has the “the flavors, feelings and fleeting glimpses of attraction that find as much erotic tension in a volleyball game or alfresco lunch as in sparring over a Bach cantata,” giving it an authentic, lived in feel and making it “a spellbinding, almost ecstatically beautiful movie.” David Sims for The Atlantic is equally glowing, and equally enamored with the film’s emotional authenticity, saying “it’s a swooning tale about the seismic power of first love –one that doesn’t dismiss Elio’s experience as a folly of youth, but instead digs into the unmistakable trace it leaves, for better or worse.”

In the New York Observer, Rex Reed, who barely even watches movies these days, let alone has anything positive to say about them, also loved the film and credited most of it to the direction of Luca Guadagnino, which is “reminiscent of [Bernardo] Bertolucci’s sensitivity” and allows the film to focus on “subtle emotions, intense sensuality and breathtaking beauty.” Alex Frank of the Village Voice also credits this, but focuses on Guadagnino’s eye for detail, saying "Call Me By Your Name" “takes place in its own isolated fantasia, a fabulous Italian utopia filled with peach trees, red wine, and fish so big that it takes two hands to carry them into the kitchen”, evoking the popular idea of Italy in the process, and NYT's Manohla Dargis goes even more micro and says the film has “vibrant, visceral textures that envelop his characters – the cool marble, succulent fruit, shadow and light, sheens of sweat.”

But the direction alone wouldn’t be enough were it not for the actors, namely Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer. Calvin Wilson of the St. Louis Dispatch says it’s “a star-making performance” for Chalamet because of his “sensitive, well-calibrated performance” and Dana Stevens for Slate agrees, saying he gives a “breathtakingly detailed and intimate performance.” As for his co-star, however, she’s more reluctant, focusing on the “beauty of art, architecture, and yes, Armie Hammer” rather than his performance. Rolling Stone’s Peter Travers is more positive, describing him as a ”revelation, giving his most complex screen role to date the tightrope thrill of full immersion.”

However, as the film is so reliant on chemistry and mood, it won’t work for everyone and one of those people is The Globe and Mail’s Kate Taylor who is primarily unconvinced by Armie Hammer, as he is “laughably implausible as a scholar, especially in a gag-inducing scene where he discourses on the etymology of the word apricot” and so, leaving a two-hander of a film essentially halved, the film goes from “languid to long.” And the notorious Armond White at the National Review, who dismisses the film as “porno-chic” rather than romantic but, more so than disliking the tone, he has a major problem with the central relationship itself, specifically that it’s between a 24-year-old man and a 17-year-old boy: “Call Me by Your Name allows PC persecutors to enjoy the double standard of idealizing adolescent sexual impulse and ignoring it when convenient” and in the process, he also evokes the now verboten name of Kevin Spacey.

According to Oddschecker, "Call Me By Your Name" is a long shot at 66/1 for Best Picture and likewise for Best Actor, with Timothée Chalamet being 28/1. It is, however, almost a guarantee for Best Adapted Screenplay with odds hovering around 1/14.