tonight i got the incredible opportunity to thank luca, the director, for a queer romance like this one that is so realistic and raw, when the rep we are getting is so full of tragedy and unrealistic portrayals, and ask about his approach to making a queer romantic film. he talked about not wanting to approach it as specifically a "queer film" but rather just make a film with emotions and complexity, however he had investors pull out because they wanted there to be more of an antagonist in terms of sexuality - wanted to make certain characters homophobic and unaccepting, things like that, because almost always there is something holding them back in queer films. did not stop shaking for the next 20 minutes and i still have not recovered from this masterpiece. best film of 2017? you bet it is folks.