Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Luca Guadagnino stays booked and busy, to the point where I can hardly keep up with all of the titles he's attached to! The acclaimed director, who is one of my personal favorites, is getting ready to release his second film of the year with Queer. Starring Emmy Award nominee Daniel Craig and up-and-comer Drew Starkey, the upcoming movie is based on the 1985 book of the same name by William S. Burroughs.
Queer premiered at the 81st Venice International Film Festival in September and now we finally know when it's coming to theaters.
The U.S. theatrical release date for Queer was recently announced, so American audiences should mark their calendars for a Nov. 27, 2024 limited release. The film is being distributed by A24. While we count down the days until we can watch the romantic drama, let's break down everything you need to know about it.
What to expect
Queer marks Guadagnino's ninth full-length feature film, and his second of the year after Challengers. Like many of his movies, Queer follows a romantic relationship that forms between two people, this time taking place in 1950s Mexico City. The movie's protagonist is William Lee (Craig), an American living in Mexico who becomes attracted to a younger man he meets named Eugene Allerton (Starkey). Lee is an outcast easily taken by Allerton, who lives in Mexico City after being discharged from the Navy.
There is no trailer for Queer yet, though movie lovers are hoping we'll get one soon now that the theatrical release date has been confirmed. A short clip from the film has been released, though, which you can watch below:
The official synopsis for Queer:
"In 1950s Mexico City, William Lee, an American ex-pat in his late forties, leads a solitary life amidst a small American community. However, the arrival in town of Eugene Allerton, a young student, stirs William into finally establishing a meaningful connection with someone."
The screenplay for Queer was written by Justin Kuritzkes, who also wrote Challengers. Though Queer does not have an official age rating yet, we can assume it will likely be rated R given what we've heard about the film's sexual content. During a press conference at the Venice Film Festival, Starkey talked about getting comfortable with his Craig through the sex scenes they filmed. As reported by IndieWire, the Outer Banks star joked, “When you’re rolling around on the floor with someone the second day of knowing each other, that’s a good way to get to know someone.”
Early reactions to the film have also referenced the sex scenes, with Ryan Lattanzio of IndieWire saying it has "the most explicit gay sex scenes I can remember in any mainstream movie." The critic also references Guadagnino's film Call Me By Your Name, which features a love story between Timothée Chalamet's Elio and Armie Hammer's Oliver, comparing the decisions made in both films:
"That Guadagnino briefly pans out a window during both, only to cut back to the lovers to find them going at it even harder than before, could suggest the filmmaker is trolling critics of the controversially coyer sex scene in Call Me By Your Name, which panned to a tree outside the bedroom of an Italian villa as Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer started going at it."
Queer serves as a sequel to Burroughs' novel Junkie. While speaking with Italian publication Cinecittà News (per The Film Stage), Guadagnino called the upcoming movie "my most personal film."
The cast
As mentioned, Daniel Craig and Drew Starkey lead the cast of Queer, but they're not the only familiar faces in the film. Here is the full confirmed cast at the time of this writing:
- Daniel Craig as William Lee
- Drew Starkey as Eugene Allerton
- Lesley Manville as Dr. Cotter
- Henry Zaga as Winston Moor
- Jason Schwartzman as Joe
- Ariel Schulman as Tom Weston
- Drew Droege as John Dumé
- Colin Bates as Tom Williams
- Ronia Ava as Joan
- Omar Apollo
- Michaël Borremans
- David Lowery
- Andra Ursuța
- Lisandro Alonso
- Ford Leland
- Diego Benzoni
Early reviews
Fortunately for those who have been looking forward to Guadagnino's next work, Queer has received generally positive reviews from critics who watched it at the Venice International Film Festival. The film will play at the 62nd New York Film Festival in October, where I'll be getting the chance to see it. By then, we'll see many more reviews come in ahead of the theatrical release.
At the time of this writing, Queer has a 78% on Rotten Tomatoes from 51 reviews. We've gathered some of the most positive reactions so far, along with some that aren't as great:
Positive reviews:
- Siddhant Adlakha from IGN Movies writes: " to a wonderfully abstract final act, which not only lingers in the mind and heart after the credits have rolled, but ensures that everything that comes before it retroactively does the same."
- David Fear from Rolling Stone writes: "Embodying Burroughs’ alter ego and cycling through Lee’s lust, jealousy, world-weariness, neediness, and bliss, Craig cracks this smitten, doomed romantic wide open. It’s the role of a lifetime if you hold nothing back. So he doesn’t."
- Sophie Monks Kaufman from Time Out writes: "Queer may be flawed, but its naked approach to such a raw subject, coupled with a remarkable lead performance, makes it a trip worth taking."
- David Rooney from The Hollywood Reporter writes: "In Queer, Luca Guadagnino meets William S. Burroughs on the iconoclast’s own slippery terms and the result is mesmerizing."
Negative reviews:
- Maureen Lee Lenker from Entertainment Weekly writes: "Queer is an exercise in cinematic smugness."
- Kevin Maher from The Times writes: "It’s visually appealing, obviously, because Guadagnino does not make ugly films. But it’s difficult to convey how little, dramatically speaking, is happening here."
- Alison Willmore from Vulture writes: "It’s an awkward combination of fidelity to historical research and wish fulfillment that doesn’t serve anyone except its creator."
- Fionnuala Halligan from Screen Daily writes: "For a Burroughs adaptation, it has all the provocation but none of the haunting power that Naked Lunch still holds, almost 35 years later."
The countdown is on until Queer premieres in select theaters this November! We'll be sure to update this post once we hear more news about the film, including a wide release date.