We’re less than two weeks out from Queer, the Luca Guadgnino-helmed romantic drama that’ll give Challengers a deep run for its money as the best Guadagnino film of 2024. Indeed, after that dreamy, soul-enriching trailer not too long ago, it’s no great task to be all in on this one.
Guadagnino’s behind-the-scenes Avengers — Justin Kuritzkes, Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, Trent Reznor, and Atticus Ross — are all back from Challengers, but there exist completely fresh faces to the film industry as well. One of them is Omar Apollo, the singer-songwriter who portrays a man who gets physically intimate with Daniel Craig‘s lead character William Lee, an experience that Apollo deems “amazing” for far more wholesome reasons than you’d be inclined to think.
Speaking recently to Entertainment Tonight, Apollo was praiseful of his far more experienced scene partner, describing him as someone who’s easy to talk to and have chemistry with, and as someone who doesn’t make himself hard to read so as to foster an environment of openness.
He also reminded us that sex scenes in films don’t actually tend to be all that intimate in the flesh, which only underlines the importance of the involved parties being able to connect with each other on a more sincere, comprehension-centric level.
Apollo’s comments also go a long way in reminding us of the genius inherent to the casting of Daniel Craig in the role of protagonist William Lee. Set in the 1940s, Queer follows Lee’s new life in Mexico City after narrowly escaping arrest during a drug bust in New Orleans. Surviving on his military penchant and insistence on sincerity and love, he later meets discharged Navy serviceman Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey) and his infatuation is devastating, so to speak.
Craig, for some time now, has not-so-quietly been embodying masculinity in a way that could arguably be defined as revolutionary. Modern audiences primarily know him as James Bond, a historically sexist, stoic, and sexually aggressive character who found a brand new, refreshing life under Craig. Craig’s Bond was driven by emotion, and there’s both a physical and personal vulnerability to this rendition of 007, this supposed icon of masculinity that’s now being realized in a way that’s far more nutritious.
Enter Knives Out, Glass Onion, and the incoming Wake Up Dead Man, where Craig portrays the delightfully humanist Southern detective Benoit Blanc. All of a sudden, this man who shot to the top of the world on the back of a reimagined Bond (and, by extension, refocused masculinity) has stepped into the shoes of a character who consistently demonstrates great joy, humor, and compassion while still having his finger on that established masculine pulse.
And that brings us to Queer, where Benoit Blanc’s happenstance queerness is traded for Lee’s much more centralized queerness, which the nearly two-decade-long buildup of Craig’s on-screen healthy masculinity stands hand-in-hand with.
Craig, then, is now representing a delectable intersection of emotionally rooted masculinity (James Bond), a willingness to be joyous and compassionate (Benoit Blanc), and, with Lee, a willingness to be devastatingly vulnerable. Queer or not, that’s the sort of person (or cinematic amalgam, take your pick) that any boy or man would be wise to look up to. Queer begins a limited theatrical run on Nov. 27.