394 – Queer (with Mitchell Beaupre!)

Letterboxd head of editorial Mitchell Beaupre returns to us this week to close out Pride month with one of Luca Guadagnino’s most divisive films. In 2024, with audiences still under the spell of Challengers, the director also brought to the screen a long-gestating passion project: an adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ Queer. Starring Daniel Craig as Burroughs alter ego William Lee, the film baroquely mines queer longing in an addiction story that earned as many fans as it did detractors.

This episode, we talk about Guadagnino’s preference for Queer over Challengers in the 2024 race and how Craig was in the Best Actor race until the final minute. We also talk about expectations that Guadagnino would return to Call Me By Your Name territory, how this film might troll critics of that film’s sexual modesty, and Lesley Manville’s brief turn as wild doctor in the jungle.

Topics also include Drew Starkey’s breakthrough role as Allerton, Craig plagued by Bond questions, and Jason Schwartzman playing gay in a fat suit.