I've only seen Suspiria, after that i simply had enough of Guadagnino. Modern Italian directors like Sorrentino (the great Beauty) and Guadagnino seem so pompous to me, very intricate for apparently no reasons. Sorrentino tried to make the discount version of Fellini's 8 1/2 and for some strange reason he won the oscar. Suspiria remake lost all the visual cohesive elements of Argento in favour of a verbose political ultra freaking boring sub plot. The movie was subversive in a very bad way.
I love the depth of your reviews, generally speaking, and here, in this particular film essay, you shine in all your reviewing strengths especially. Very well done!
This is my favorite of the 4 of his I have seen (Suspiria, Call Me By Your Name, Challengers). While it's thin and distant, that distance coming from William Lee really reaonated with me. There are parts of me I see in the character, but also just a lot of men I have known. Makes me very sad for a lost generation of gay men.
You're articulate, interesting, and intelligent, so I enjoy your reviews immensely. Your artistic flair isn't surprising, so I would like to see more of your work on the screen to showcase your other talent. Thank you for your insights.
II have only seen Challengers and Suspiria from him. He has the sauce in a way that i rarely see, but i don’t know, the form always feels super rythmic, atmospheric and almost like a sort of stream of consciousness editing style, but the actual tension between characters never work at all. I guess it is a very subjective feeling to have, but noneless it don’t quite hit as it should for me. I can’t bring myself to feel anything for his characters but goddamn his style feels very fresh.
I think Nirvana is in the film partly because Burroughs and Cobain were friends and worked together. Maybe there is some other connection between them and the film tries to work out this connection.
I love this movie deeply. It was slow but beautiful and heartbreaking. It keeps lingering in my mind and I just can’t stop thinking about it! Guagagnino continues to be one of my favorite filmmakers and I love his vision of the world. 9/10
Found it extremely boring with obvious symbolism. The direction is great, but there isn't enough character development or story that kept me intrigued.
Absolutely hated this movie. I’m really interested in the source material because it felt like such an unsuccessful adaptation. It just felt so empty, pretentious and heavy handed with some of the most cringe inducing and out of place needle drops I’ve heard in years
What an incredibly insightful, well articulated review. Personally I loved the movie, but I appreciate how you back up your opinions with intelligent comments. Very well done!
I agree and disagree. I dislike him to direct it because he has the potential to make a super pretentious film, but I love him to make the film because he's the type of filmmaker that will stick to his guns instead of conform and make a mainstream shit show like Greta Gerwig.
The social media explosion and 2010s hyper politicization of all things including sexual preference ... really got a lot of people turned off from learning about others / different lifestyles, imo. I think the times are changing, hopefully. Will check this movie out eventually . Craig has always been fun to watch .
Wonderful review. You're very good at this. You articulated many things I was thinking, but was unable to describe. I loved the first half of the film, but for me, bottom fell out during the second half, which seemed like an entirely different movie than what I was watching only minutes earlier. From my experience, Guadagnino has this way of sabotaging his films with nutty scenes and unnecessarily long run times. This film could have been much better had the ending been a tad more coventional, and more in line with the look, tone and feel of the first half. I think Gaudagnino is asking too much from an audience during the confusing and bizzare last 45-minutes of the film. Thanks again for the excellent review.
"I recommend the film... But don't pay full price... Have your friend buy a ticket and let you sneak in the back door. If you do that, I recommend this film."
God I love you reviews! I tell you how much: I live in Italy, here Queer will be released in February 2025, but I wanted to know your thoughts on the movie.
I just got home from watching it. I’m still marinating. My friend who read the book really liked it. I think that’s a good sign. Mm Drew Starkey is my new fav.
Hey, thanks for your honest review. The distance you describe feeling when watching a Luca Guadagnino movie is legit, but I disagree when you say it's a flaw. His films Call Me By Your Name and Queer (can't include Challengers because its ending breached like a whale tail) aren't structured to crescendo into cascades of emotion. They remind me of Antonioni and Godard in this regard. They take a piecemeal approach. They take any twisted tangent they like. They don't don't care about the rollercoaster. They don't care about Spielberg and Lucas and way Hollywood religiously plots every movie into a cliffhanger or tearjerker. They follow their own rhythm. They meander. Daniel Craig was a force, agreed. His face so contorted, made me feel decrepit, especially when held up in parallel to his flawless lover. The film was designed to make the viewer feel old, lonely and broken. It did a fine job. The musical bursts were at times the only available escapism from Craig's craggy, jagged wound of a countenance. God, this movie got me so down that I had to walk for an hour and half before I saw dogs playing together in a park and felt young again. Depressing as hell... I loved the last act in South America though. The first act, with Craig's lascivious escapades and 50's Mexico City captured with such full-bodied flavor (the place to be: Frida, Diego Rivera, the Beats, Che and Castro) was designed to pleasure. The second act was ruined by the protagonist's painful withdrawal and bodily disgust. But the last act took us to the Amazon. It felt exotic and dangerous. Snakes and sloths and drugs, oh my! Finally not every shot pivoted on Craig's ruined expressions. The medicine woman was pure spice! Her crude habitat was all zing! Finally William Lee connects with his beloved. The scene under the influence of Ayahuasca mesmerized. I finally saw his beloved as something other than empty beauty. I saw his beloved as substantial, but living in fear of that substance. Living in fear of who he truly was. They were equals at last! And then the beloved was gone and Craig was old again... 10/10
I feel you on a lot of what you said. I felt very frustrated watching this because it felt like I should love it but it was too untethered from reality
Sounds familiar, like looking at a beautiful diarama in a museum but not being shown what you want to know about it. You admire it but are disconnected from it by the glass.
I appreciated the nostalgic high-style slow exploration of grief and loss / But i really disliked the sound track choices.... annoying to say the least.
C'mon limerence! I appreciate how you highlight the leisure aspect since the book itself was very laidback and meandering and you highlight how Guadagnino pays homage to the essence of the Beats. Apart from the magnitude of the production/costume design/anchor of Craig's performance (best of career) Personally, I was most impressed at how accurate he was able to capture Allerton because it's a difficult thing to do since he's basically a human mirage. Both an oasis of sorts and a kind of soulless mist before you hit inferno. Starkey perfectly played it, in my opinion. Probably accidentally. I'm sad you're unable to connect with Luca Guadagnino because he feels like one of the current/most recent directors who is able to create phantasmagoria.
Guessing this isn’t a review of Thompson Twins’ 1991 album, or that this is quite similar to Suspiria or Bones and All from the director. Might watch this down the road but whereas After the Hunt (upcoming film by Guadagnino) is in my wheelhouse, a period romantic drama isn’t at the moment. I see he also has American Psycho in the frying pan…yes, the Patrick Bateman one.
Luca is a vapid filmmaker. He is a lot of style and works with great cinematographers, though. All his films since A Bigger Splash have been pretty much the same with the same big speech by a character past the midpoint. His films make casual film goers feel clever.
Lee is I feel trying to fall in love with his younger, more put together and organized and drug free self (yes I believe him and Lee are the same person). Lee currently is empty, addicted to heroin, alcohol and meaningless sex, wants to truly fall in love with HIMSELF again. Drew Starkey even looks like him (glasses, hair, eyes, ) and does not even know if himself is queer. Lee is trying to awaken this part of himself that denies his sexuality and be as one (as seen in drug trip). This eventually works as Eugene is never seen again (his younger self), there’s one problem. He spent so long trying to fall in love with himself that he never found a true lover to be with. He wasted his years in regret to an old man as he dies on the same bed where they first laid. yes the shooting of the glass on top of eugenes head is callback to burroughs and his wife, but i believe it also represents him choosing his addiction (alcohol as represented as the glass) over his younger true self. i could be wrong but thats the beauty of films like these
I would be curious about your exposure and knowledge of Burroughs and his work prior to seeing the movie? By your comments it seems you went through a Beat period. Burroughs was known for his unreliable narrators in his literature. Trent Reznor and his NIN partner Atticus Ross did the music.
"Challengers" was a movie I just wasn't interested in, which is mainly due to how the trailer made it look: Cold and superficial, a bit bland, lacking character depth, too stylised and empty. You introductory comment on the film-maker's approach and style and your own reaction to this underlined my suspicions that this just isn't the right movie for me. "Queer" by Burroughs is a novel I have always been interested in but never got around to actually read. Not sure whether this is the right movie for me, but Daniel Craig is an interesting choice. I loved his performance in "Defiance". Have you seen Cronenberg's "Naked Lunch" based on the novel by the same author? For me it is an amazing adaptation / crossover between literary motives and biographical aspects in a movie that is very much its own beast and yet carries over the atmosphere and and original ideas of the novel beautifully into film language. Highly recommended and superbly surreal!
I am sorry but queer is an autobiographical book, and if the film did what you want it would be disrespectful. Especially for the book that was band and tied in litigation for 20 years.
I’m surprised that you haven’t reviewed bones and all because for me that’s Luca’s gold winner when it comes to his films. I found it extremely emotionally investing for those that have dealt with being lonely and grew up being different and it totally connected with me.
I can't believe this guy is going to direct the American Psycho remake. I can already smell the pretentious garbage, and it didn't even start filming yet.
@M.H.I.A.F.T. I don't care about book accuracy. I don't care if Craig is an exact replica of the Bond from the books. That doesn't make him an entertaining film character. There. Now your wait is over.
I do not like Guavanino, yes I wrote that exactly that way. I just can’t connect to his work, very pretentious. He comes off as an asshole as well. CMBYN is also not a good film. Yeah I said it.
Really satisfying review, as always, thank you Maggie.
“I find his work to be artistically overwrought and frustratingly abstract ”….chefs kiss.
Abstract is a good thing. I don't think he is, though.
Abstract in imagery, sure, but the messaging of his films are made pretty clear.
I've only seen Suspiria, after that i simply had enough of Guadagnino. Modern Italian directors like Sorrentino (the great Beauty) and Guadagnino seem so pompous to me, very intricate for apparently no reasons. Sorrentino tried to make the discount version of Fellini's 8 1/2 and for some strange reason he won the oscar. Suspiria remake lost all the visual cohesive elements of Argento in favour of a verbose political ultra freaking boring sub plot. The movie was subversive in a very bad way.
@gabrielegagliardi3956 I hated Suspiria, but this is different.
I love the depth of your reviews, generally speaking, and here, in this particular film essay, you shine in all your reviewing strengths especially. Very well done!
This is my favorite of the 4 of his I have seen (Suspiria, Call Me By Your Name, Challengers). While it's thin and distant, that distance coming from William Lee really reaonated with me. There are parts of me I see in the character, but also just a lot of men I have known. Makes me very sad for a lost generation of gay men.
It's not just gay men who are lost these days.
You're articulate, interesting, and intelligent, so I enjoy your reviews immensely. Your artistic flair isn't surprising, so I would like to see more of your work on the screen to showcase your other talent. Thank you for your insights.
Excellent review as always. Informative/incisive without divulging too many plot details.
one of the best scores of the year for sure
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross never miss
one of the movies of the year. incredible styling, set design and performances. I particularly like the surrealism
II have only seen Challengers and Suspiria from him. He has the sauce in a way that i rarely see, but i don’t know, the form always feels super rythmic, atmospheric and almost like a sort of stream of consciousness editing style, but the actual tension between characters never work at all. I guess it is a very subjective feeling to have, but noneless it don’t quite hit as it should for me. I can’t bring myself to feel anything for his characters but goddamn his style feels very fresh.
Wow you worded how I exactly felt about it
I think Nirvana is in the film partly because Burroughs and Cobain were friends and worked together. Maybe there is some other connection between them and the film tries to work out this connection.
Daniel Craig doesn't just manifest, he MANifests.
Well he did have Rhys Ifans’ chasing after him in Enduring Love, he has that effect on gents as well as ladies.
I love this movie deeply. It was slow but beautiful and heartbreaking. It keeps lingering in my mind and I just can’t stop thinking about it! Guagagnino continues to be one of my favorite filmmakers and I love his vision of the world. 9/10
What an incredible review, i'm actually going to watch it now. I had a love/hate with Challengers so i know what you mean with his work.
Found it extremely boring with obvious symbolism. The direction is great, but there isn't enough character development or story that kept me intrigued.
Absolutely hated this movie. I’m really interested in the source material because it felt like such an unsuccessful adaptation. It just felt so empty, pretentious and heavy handed with some of the most cringe inducing and out of place needle drops I’ve heard in years
What an incredibly insightful, well articulated review. Personally I loved the movie, but I appreciate how you back up your opinions with intelligent comments. Very well done!
The worst choice to direct the American Psycho remake but maybe not
I agree and disagree. I dislike him to direct it because he has the potential to make a super pretentious film, but I love him to make the film because he's the type of filmmaker that will stick to his guns instead of conform and make a mainstream shit show like Greta Gerwig.
The social media explosion and 2010s hyper politicization of all things including sexual preference ... really got a lot of people turned off from learning about others / different lifestyles, imo. I think the times are changing, hopefully.
Will check this movie out eventually . Craig has always been fun to watch .
Thank you
Wonderful review. You're very good at this. You articulated many things I was thinking, but was unable to describe. I loved the first half of the film, but for me, bottom fell out during the second half, which seemed like an entirely different movie than what I was watching only minutes earlier. From my experience, Guadagnino has this way of sabotaging his films with nutty scenes and unnecessarily long run times. This film could have been much better had the ending been a tad more coventional, and more in line with the look, tone and feel of the first half. I think Gaudagnino is asking too much from an audience during the confusing and bizzare last 45-minutes of the film. Thanks again for the excellent review.
"I recommend the film... But don't pay full price... Have your friend buy a ticket and let you sneak in the back door. If you do that, I recommend this film."
Lol. Were there any films you saw this year that you were glad you paid full price for?
@@waynedexter Dune part 2, 70mm
@@adriancoliba I can co-sign on Dune 2 70mm. But I doubt you saw it for $6…
Is there any way to get ahold of Maggie before we die.
God I love you reviews! I tell you how much: I live in Italy, here Queer will be released in February 2025, but I wanted to know your thoughts on the movie.
I just got home from watching it. I’m still marinating. My friend who read the book really liked it. I think that’s a good sign. Mm Drew Starkey is my new fav.
Oh my gosh just always luv the most intelligent, nuanced, flavorful movie reviewers on YT (annnnd again even w a movie I knew I won’t be seeing)
One of the most gorgeous looking movies in a while.
Hey, thanks for your honest review. The distance you describe feeling when watching a Luca Guadagnino movie is legit, but I disagree when you say it's a flaw. His films Call Me By Your Name and Queer (can't include Challengers because its ending breached like a whale tail) aren't structured to crescendo into cascades of emotion. They remind me of Antonioni and Godard in this regard. They take a piecemeal approach. They take any twisted tangent they like. They don't don't care about the rollercoaster. They don't care about Spielberg and Lucas and way Hollywood religiously plots every movie into a cliffhanger or tearjerker. They follow their own rhythm. They meander.
Daniel Craig was a force, agreed. His face so contorted, made me feel decrepit, especially when held up in parallel to his flawless lover. The film was designed to make the viewer feel old, lonely and broken. It did a fine job. The musical bursts were at times the only available escapism from Craig's craggy, jagged wound of a countenance. God, this movie got me so down that I had to walk for an hour and half before I saw dogs playing together in a park and felt young again. Depressing as hell...
I loved the last act in South America though. The first act, with Craig's lascivious escapades and 50's Mexico City captured with such full-bodied flavor (the place to be: Frida, Diego Rivera, the Beats, Che and Castro) was designed to pleasure. The second act was ruined by the protagonist's painful withdrawal and bodily disgust. But the last act took us to the Amazon. It felt exotic and dangerous. Snakes and sloths and drugs, oh my! Finally not every shot pivoted on Craig's ruined expressions. The medicine woman was pure spice! Her crude habitat was all zing! Finally William Lee connects with his beloved. The scene under the influence of Ayahuasca mesmerized. I finally saw his beloved as something other than empty beauty. I saw his beloved as substantial, but living in fear of that substance. Living in fear of who he truly was. They were equals at last! And then the beloved was gone and Craig was old again...
10/10
I feel you on a lot of what you said. I felt very frustrated watching this because it felt like I should love it but it was too untethered from reality
Sounds familiar, like looking at a beautiful diarama in a museum but not being shown what you want to know about it. You admire it but are disconnected from it by the glass.
I appreciated the nostalgic high-style slow exploration of grief and loss /
But i really disliked the sound track choices.... annoying to say the least.
C'mon limerence! I appreciate how you highlight the leisure aspect since the book itself was very laidback and meandering and you highlight how Guadagnino pays homage to the essence of the Beats. Apart from the magnitude of the production/costume design/anchor of Craig's performance (best of career) Personally, I was most impressed at how accurate he was able to capture Allerton because it's a difficult thing to do since he's basically a human mirage. Both an oasis of sorts and a kind of soulless mist before you hit inferno. Starkey perfectly played it, in my opinion. Probably accidentally. I'm sad you're unable to connect with Luca Guadagnino because he feels like one of the current/most recent directors who is able to create phantasmagoria.
Guessing this isn’t a review of Thompson Twins’ 1991 album, or that this is quite similar to Suspiria or Bones and All from the director.
Might watch this down the road but whereas After the Hunt (upcoming film by Guadagnino) is in my wheelhouse, a period romantic drama isn’t at the moment. I see he also has American Psycho in the frying pan…yes, the Patrick Bateman one.
Surprised Deep Focus Lens doesn't consider her own tastes "high brow." Her standards are very high routinely ignoring wide critical acclaim.
Luca is a vapid filmmaker. He is a lot of style and works with great cinematographers, though. All his films since A Bigger Splash have been pretty much the same with the same big speech by a character past the midpoint. His films make casual film goers feel clever.
Maggie please review Kraven! 😅
Lee is I feel trying to fall in love with his younger, more put together and organized and drug free self (yes I believe him and Lee are the same person).
Lee currently is empty, addicted to heroin, alcohol and meaningless sex, wants to truly fall in love with HIMSELF again. Drew Starkey even looks like him (glasses, hair, eyes, ) and does not even know if himself is queer. Lee is trying to awaken this part of himself that denies his sexuality and be as one (as seen in drug trip). This eventually works as Eugene is never seen again (his younger self), there’s one problem.
He spent so long trying to fall in love with himself that he never found a true lover to be with.
He wasted his years in regret to an old man as he dies on the same bed where they first laid. yes the shooting of the glass on top of eugenes head is callback to burroughs and his wife, but i believe it also represents him choosing his addiction (alcohol as represented as the glass) over his younger true self. i could be wrong but thats the beauty of films like these
The
naked Lunch soundtrack probably hard to beat
hello fellow straight men of culture
😒 bffr
I would be curious about your exposure and knowledge of Burroughs and his work prior to seeing the movie? By your comments it seems you went through a Beat period.
Burroughs was known for his unreliable narrators in his literature.
Trent Reznor and his NIN partner Atticus Ross did the music.
Good review.
Another good review. Thank you
Can’t relate more with the anachronistic song critique. It’s giving jay z in the great gatsby all over again
"Challengers" was a movie I just wasn't interested in, which is mainly due to how the trailer made it look: Cold and superficial, a bit bland, lacking character depth, too stylised and empty.
You introductory comment on the film-maker's approach and style and your own reaction to this underlined my suspicions that this just isn't the right movie for me.
"Queer" by Burroughs is a novel I have always been interested in but never got around to actually read.
Not sure whether this is the right movie for me, but Daniel Craig is an interesting choice. I loved his performance in "Defiance".
Have you seen Cronenberg's "Naked Lunch" based on the novel by the same author? For me it is an amazing adaptation / crossover between literary motives and biographical aspects in a movie that is very much its own beast and yet carries over the atmosphere and and original ideas of the novel beautifully into film language. Highly recommended and superbly surreal!
Your assumption about Challenges couldn't be more wrong
It would be very interesting to watch a video where you rank Luca Guadagninos best films to worst (your honest opinion). 😁
I’m enjoying the lighting!
very interesting, I'll watch this one
Love you, Maggie. ❤❤
dude what a fantastic review!
pretty much always impeccably dressed
'There's too much, and not enough at the same time.' Jack Kerouac (& Maggie, in all her reviews).
I am sorry but queer is an autobiographical book, and if the film did what you want it would be disrespectful. Especially for the book that was band and tied in litigation for 20 years.
I love it! I saw it twice in cinema.
I’m surprised that you haven’t reviewed bones and all because for me that’s Luca’s gold winner when it comes to his films. I found it extremely emotionally investing for those that have dealt with being lonely and grew up being different and it totally connected with me.
Is it a coincidence that each time this reviewer appears in my suggestions she wears short? Or is it the usual dresscode ..? 😉
Might be the climate where she lives or just her style. I like this dress particularly, nice pattern, suits her well.
Oh hey a movie you like
Hello🖐
wtf is she talking about?
❤
Maggie liked a Guadanino’s film? Intriguing… 🤔 I’ll see it.
I hate basically everything about Guadagnino, but this one was great. I even regretted booing his name during the opening credits at Venice.
I can't believe this guy is going to direct the American Psycho remake. I can already smell the pretentious garbage, and it didn't even start filming yet.
whoa he is? that's crayzee
of all the movies why would that one have to get remade… wha is this Guadagenius wanna prove
I walked out. Too boring
just say you hate them :(
Weak
Daniel Craig. That’s all I need to know. Hard pass. Please just go back to being the worst James Bond in history.
professional hater detected
@@itspedyluisHe obviously never read the Bond books also lmao, basically always the case.
@Charliehund100 Please tell me how he was a worse Bond than Lazenby, or at least a less book-accurate Bond than Moore. I'll wait.
@@greggoat6570 Nope, never have. So what? If I read the books, does Craig all of a sudden become a better and more believable actor?
@M.H.I.A.F.T. I don't care about book accuracy. I don't care if Craig is an exact replica of the Bond from the books. That doesn't make him an entertaining film character. There. Now your wait is over.
I hope you make videos without using your microphone
what does this mean?
I do not like Guavanino, yes I wrote that exactly that way. I just can’t connect to his work, very pretentious. He comes off as an asshole as well. CMBYN is also not a good film. Yeah I said it.
You write like you’re 15
oh no, you have a different opinion on a film 😢