We’re deep into fall, which means many of the year’s buzziest movies are soon heading to theaters in hopes of making a splash this coming awards season.
Among our most anticipated titles in Luca Guadagnino’s Queer, but how could we not be excited for that one?You can’t spell this site’s name without it!
The Call Me By Your Name director reunites with Challengers writer Justin Kuritzkes to adapt acclaimed author William S. Burroughs’ novel of the same name, which went unpublished for years likely due to its heavy homosexual content.
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The film finds former 007 Daniel Craig playing Lee—a semi-autobiographical version of Burroughs himself—an aimless man living in Mexico City in the 1940s who is trying to overcome his drug addiction when he grows infatuated with a younger man named Allerton (Outer Banks‘ Drew Starkey), recently discharged from the Navy.
After debuting at the Venice Film Festival in early September, Queer made its U.S. premiere at the New York Film Festival earlier this week, and excitement over the movie has reached a fever pitch, especially as A24 mounts a promotional campaign for its theatrical release on November 24.
Craig, for one, is receiving some of the best reviews of his career for his fearless performance, and much has already been made about his explicit intimates scenes with Starkey, but also alt-pop star Omar Apollo, going whole-hog for his acting debut. Literally.
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Yes, as has been reported, the “Spite” singer’s brief but memorable cameo includes a scene where he takes it all off and gets it on with Craig’s Lee. We’d say, “We’ll believe it when we see it,” but we don’t have to because somehow that particular moment has already made its way online.
Just to be clear: We absolutely don’t want to encourage unofficial leaks of any kind, and we 100% condone the act of filming even bits of a movie on your phone—where’s your theater etiquette, people??? For shame!
However, the aforementioned scene is very much on the internet (whether we like it or not) if you know where to look, and it already has the gays gagging. Same goes for another clip prominently showcasing Craig and Starkey making love. From behind. Everybody be cool about this, okay?
Honestly, if there’s a silver-lining to the situation, it’s that the leaks only seems to have certain folks ever more excited to see Queer for themselves in full.
Sorry, Guadagnino, but you can’t make a movie featuring “numerous and quite scandalous” sex scenes and not expect the gays to get all worked up. Naturally, the filming of said scenes has been a major talking point in the pre-release press—for example, in a new interview, Variety asked Craig about filming those intense moments with Apollo and “easing the newcomer’s nerves”:
“Omar is beautiful human being,” Craig opined—and we have to agree. “You just have to look after each other. That’s all. We’re all adults. We know what it’s about and try to make the scene as real as you can.”
Funny thing is, a lot of gays are clocking that Apollo was probably way more excited than he was nervous:
No way, you’re telling me he didn’t have to put openly gay Omar Apollo at ease into having sex with James fucking Bond?
— ZEE MACHINE (@ZeeMachineMusic) October 11, 2024
Craig also had heaps of praise for his co-star Drew Starkey, while admitting he hadn’t seen his previous work in Outer Banks. That Netflix series is really what first thrust him into the spotlight, but he’s quickly climbing the ranks of the internet’s favorite babygirl now that Queer‘s bringing him to a new level of attention.
“He’s such a beautiful human being,” Craig says of Starkey. “We lucked out that he did the movie to have someone that young and so dedicated and also just savvy about the world… He’s a huge star. He’s very grown up. He knows what he’s doing. Just dedicated. When you work with dedicated human beings, it makes it very easy.”
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Anyone else catch that he called both Starkey and Apollo “beautiful’? He’s certainly not beating those bi-curious dream daddy allegations any time soon. Actually, both Craig his his gorgeous, talented wife Rachel Weisz have a fun, flirty “we saw you from across the bar and really dig your vibe” energy we’re kind of obsessed with.
Anyway, until we can see Starkey in Queer for ourselves, we’ll just have to take Craig’s word for it!
We’re counting down to November 27 when Luca Guadagnino’s Queer–also starring Lesley Manville, Jason Schwartzman, Henry Zaga, and Drew Droege—begins playing in select theaters across the country.
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