The Queer Trailer Teases Daniel Craig's Best Performance Yet

Trailers

Leave it to filmmaker Luca Guadagnino to redefine a movie star before our very eyes. The director who landed Timothée Chalamet on the map in 2017's heart-wrenching romance "Call Me by Your Name" and most recently turned a sports drama starring the triumvirate of Zendaya, Josh O'Connor, and Mike Faist into one of this year's most exhilarating theatrical experiences with "Challengers" isn't even close to being done just yet. His latest film might also be one of his most anticipated ever, taking aim at the life and times of famous American writer William S. Burroughs in what's arguably his most complicated and impressively adult subject matter yet. Not only does "Queer" live up to every unspoken promise of its title, as I reviewed for /Film here, but it also delivers what might very well go down as Daniel Craig's best performance yet.

If that sounds like impossibly high praise, just take a gander at the first official trailer that studio A24 dropped this morning. The footage depicts the former James Bond star like you've never seen him before, teasing a soulful and utterly sweeping love story between Craig's William Lee (an obvious stand-in for Burroughs himself) and the subject of his affections, Eugene Allerton (an equally as commanding Drew Starkey). The preview offers a mere glimpse of what "Queer" has to offer throughout its moving and epic tale, but we'll talk about that a little later. For now, check out the trailer at the link above!

Queer is one of the year's biggest and best must-see movies

We're all just looking for a little connection ... some of us are a bit more dramatic about it than others, is all. That's an extremely watered-down description of events as told in "Queer," Luca Guadagnino's stirring and utterly surprising adaptation of an unfinished short story of the same name by the great novelist William S. Burroughs. Anyone even vaguely familiar with the writer's tumultuous life will find plenty of details to sink their teeth into here, but newcomers won't feel like they're missing a single beat thanks to Justin Kuritzkes' impeccable script. "Queer" takes viewers on an odyssey through seedy dive bars in post-war Mexico, sweaty bedrooms full of unbridled passion and unrequited love, and even the jungles of South America. All throughout, you'll find it impossible to resist the blistering dynamic between leading men Daniel Craig and Drew Starkey.

"Queer" also stars Lesley Manville, Jason Schwartzman (my personal MVP for the supporting cast), Henrique Zaga, and Omar Apollo. This production once had its start as a very different concept involving actors Guy Pearce and Ben Foster and directed by Steve Buscemi, of all people. It's safe to say that Guadagnino's version forges its own path altogether, mixing the filmmaker's ever-poignant exploration of queer storytelling and his talent for abstract imagery into an intoxicating brew. The movie touted by A24 as "a generational love story" will come to theaters on November 27, 2024, ahead of what's almost certain to be a serious awards run. You can find the official synopsis of "Queer" below.

1950. William Lee, an American expat in Mexico City, spends his days almost entirely alone, except for a few contacts with other members of the small American community. His encounter with Eugene Allerton, an expat former soldier, new to the city, shows him, for the first time, that it might be finally possible to establish an intimate connection with somebody.