Almost There: Daniel Craig in "Queer"

by Cláudio Alves

Apart from Call Me By Your Name, awards voters rarely see anything worth celebrating in Luca Guadagnino's cinema. In some ways, this season seemed to be a change of pace on that front, with Challengers and Queer going into Oscar nomination morning with some hopes. Sadly, they both got blanked. And while the tennis melodrama was mostly vying for "below the line" honors, Queer had its sight set on a Best Actor nomination, the first piece of Academy Award recognition for the erstwhile Bond, Daniel Craig. Ultimately, the William S. Burroughs adaptation was probably too weird for AMPAS' tastes, but we're here to recognize a performance that's nothing if not Oscar-worthy…

Click to read more ...

Venice 2024: Luca Guadagnino's "Queer"

by Elisa Giudici

Daniel Craig and Drew Starkey in QUEER (photo: Yannis Drakoulidis)

Luca Guadagnino's 2024 double feature, early release Challengers and the new premiere Queer, explore the intricate and slow process of calibrating love. In both,love is a delicate balancing act where one person loves intensely, perhaps even desperately, while the other remains more passive, content to be loved without being deeply invested in the relationship. The fundamental difference between the two lies in how they resolve this imbalance...

Click to read more ...

It's a good time to be a Josh O'Connor fan

by Cláudio Alves

While Luca Guadagnino's sexy tennis movie is queering up the box office, Alice Rohrwacher's La Chimera is finally out On Digital. In other words, if you're soft for Ratatouille's #1 fan Josh O'Connor, it must feel like everything's coming up roses. And isn't that how it should be? Between the two projects, the up-and-coming British actor shows off his range and then some. In Challengers, he's all dirtbag sleaze, playful in that way naughty kids can be when they know they've gotten away with something. Yet, between provocations, there's vulnerability peeking through, hunger of the stomach and the heart. Contrast with La Chimera, performed primarily in Italian and suffused with quiet heartbreak from start to finish. From burning ardor to morose romanticism, Josh O'Connor excels…

Click to read more ...

Review: "Challengers" throbs with desire

by Cláudio Alves

American mainstream cinema has rarely felt as sexless as it does today. Even in the period between the 1934 implementation of the Hays Code and its demise, screens felt roused with desire. In some ways, the prohibition of overt sexuality supercharged movies with erotic potential, like a pot of boiling water that heats up faster once you put a lid on it. But nowadays, such qualities feel like artifacts of a bygone era. That's not to say movies suddenly lack objects of desire. Instead, as RS Benedict put it in his essay on superhero films, "everyone is beautiful and no one is horny."  But here comes Luca Guadagnino to the rescue, that lustful Italian whose films beckon a return to hedonistic cinema even when produced within Hollywood. Challengers is a prime example of that…

Click to read more ...

Luca Guadagnino has dropped another project

by Cláudio Alves

Back when Luca Guadagnino first announced his plans to remake Suspiria, many were skeptical – me included. Why would we need a new take on the material when Argento's 1977 classic is such a candy-colored masterpiece? It turns out that Guadagnino was idiosyncratic enough to get away with it, proposing such a distinct vision that comparing it to the other movie feels beside the point. Hence, when the director told the world he'd helm a Scarface remake from a Coen Bros. script, the consensus was more hopeful than before. Well, that picture is officially off of Guadagnino's schedule, joining the ranks of many a dropped project…

Click to read more ...