Frank Ocean updated his Tumblr again. The recording artist has been known to use the social media platform to relay all kinds of updates to his fans, from using it to debut songs to, perhaps most notably, to share that he’s bisexual. In his post recent Tumblr post, Ocean writes, “Michael Stuhlbarg is my new dad now and that’s that.” For those of you who haven’t seen the Call Me By Your Name, Ocean is of course (we think) referring to Stuhlbarg’s character in the film, which stirring up quite the Oscar buzz.
Warning: the following contains a couple plot spoilers; however, what happens in Call Me By Your Name isn’t as important as the brilliant way in which it’s portrayed. In the romantic, coming-of age drama, which is based on the 2007 novel by André Aciman, 17-year-old Elio Perlman (Timothée Chalamet) goes to spend the summer of 1983 with his family at their 17th-Century villa in Lombardy, Italy. It’s there he meets Oliver, a doctoral student and intern to Elio’s father, played by Stuhlbarg.
An unlikely friendship emerges between the two young men, before Elio discovers he has more than just friendly feelings for Oliver, and Oliver for him. Elio’s parents are aware of their son’s relationship with Oliver, and Elio’s father, anticipates his son’s impending heartbreak, as Oliver’s stay comes to a close. Towards the end of the film, Elio’s father confesses that he knew about the affair, and he urges Elio to embrace his grief as part of the true love he experienced, and so few are as luck to find.
The emotive scene is just really fucking beautiful, and for Ocean, we imagine it may have struck some very personal notes, given the subject matter. Stuhlbarg’s discussion with his son isn’t just supportive (and not in a cloying Hallmark kind of way), it’s stunningly transparent, lending a very original take on the way coming-out scenes have been dealt with in media.
