His emotions balance on a knife blade, ready to tilt toward full-body joy or erupt into a jolting rage. He stares at the nude bodies of the men he sees in the base locker room but is equally entranced by books of poetry and the blurry candid photos of Caitlin that he surreptitiously snaps. Fraser is a roiling bundle of impulses, many of which don’t match up with his new friends’ more stereotypical teen desires. Much of the series’ success balances on Grazer’s performance, which is as engrossing as it is impossible to pin down. At other times, it’s off-putting and anxiety-inducing. At times, We Are Who We Are has the beautiful specificity of an adolescent memory, capturing the feeling of a party gone on too long or a daring summer night where anything seems possible. This is evident in the final product, for better or for worse. In a recent New York Times interview, the writer/director mentions that once he met his lead actors, he tossed his original plans for the series and decided to “follow the characters” in a more spontaneous approach to filmmaking. We Are Who We Are is as tactile and mesmerizing as all of Guadagnino’s best work, but where Call Me By Your Name thrives on controlled passion and Suspiria meticulously tells a multi-layered story, this often tips into chaos. Fraser’s unpredictable mother, military commander Sarah ( Chloë Sevigny), and her wife, Maggie ( Alice Braga) are countered by the more traditional Harper family, whose patriarch, Richard (Scott Mescudi, better known as Kid Cudi) dons a MAGA hat while his Nigerian wife, Jenny ( Faith Alabi), bakes cakes and watches American weather reports.

Its dual protagonists are erratic, stylish outcast Fraser Wilson ( IT and Shazam!’s Jack Dylan Grazer) and observant, self-assured Caitlin Harper (newcomer Jordan Kristine Seamon). The eight-episode first season follows two neighboring families living on an American military base in 2016. Luca Guadagnino’s We Are Who We Are is a moody coming-of-age tale set in Italy and drenched in sunshine, but fans of the director should take note: this is no Call Me By Your Name. This week, Valerie Ettenhofer takes a look at HBO’s new series from Luca Guadagnino, We Are Who We Are. Welcome to Up Next, a column that gives you the rundown on the latest TV.

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