2024 Venice Film Festival- "Queer", "Joker 2", and more....

B...b...but.....straight actors shouldn't play queers!

JOKER: FOLIE À DEUX?

[quote]Barbera: “We were astonished, our mouths were open at the end of the screening. "

Wow, "Queer" seems to have everything, except a Paul Mescal cameo.

Someone wants an Oscar.

As many times as I’ve read William S. Burroughs’ Queer, I always thought it was about grief and addiction.

Well, now it’s about pride and naked kicks, bub! I hope it’s like a big screen “Love, American Style!” Wacky, not too bawdy and with a sickly sweet center, that leaves everyone laughed out and nauseated.

Sounds like Luca Guadagnino’s usual bunch of bullshit.

R2 No one can play strange better than Joaquin.

Drew Starkey on Guadagnino:

[quote]“The process of collaborating with someone like Luca is incredibly freeing and funny and absurd. I trusted him completely. I trusted his viewpoint. I would do anything he would say.”

Isabelle is the I of the Jury.

Are they Gaga for Gaga?

The head of the Venice FF is really tone deaf, going on about how brave it is for Craig to be playing a gay role. As noted, Craig has been playing gay characters throughout his entire career including originating the role of Joe Pitt in the National Theatre’s UK premiere of Angels in America back in 1993 (opposite Jason Isaac’s as Louis). One of his best performances was as George Dyer, the ex-boxer, lover and muse of Francis Bacon in John Maybury’s 1997 film, Love is the Devil (highly recommended). And he gay-baited his way through the Bond franchise for nearly 15 years. And though it’s just for jokes, his character is supposed to be gay in Knives Out (dropping none too subtle references like singing Sondheim’s Losing My Kind). I don’t think the sexual orientation of a character concerns Craig much. He had no concerns in Love is the Devil depicting his character’s desire and dependence on Francis Bacon, no matter how cruel he was to him. There’s definitely a fucking scene and, I believe, a scene in which he rims him (which was all the rage in UK drama at the time with Mark Ravenhill’s Shopping and Fucking in the West End).

But more importantly, this “bravery” campaign ended about 30 years ago when Tom Hanks won an Oscar for Philadelphia. I don’t remember that being much of an angle for Heath Ledger’s campaign for Brokeback or Hoffman’s campaign for Capote the same year. The response to Ledger’s performance was the dignity and respect and humanity he brought to his character (he should’ve won). So 30 years later, the “he’s so brave” campaign angle or even the “Daniel Craig does gay things” angle seems very dated and transgressive. Unless Italy is somehow in the dark ages.

Queer is also a major literary work but typical of Guadignino, there’s little focus on that. I suspect it the film were that impressive there’d be more of a focus on the story, it’s themes of longing, isolation and addiction. I mean, it could be good - as in life, “Lee” in the novel is a great character. Peter Weller was very good as a different variation of the character in Cronenberg’s Naked Lunch (with DL fav Judy Davis in the role I suspect is being played by Lesley Manville here). But the whole of Queer is a very interior experience and, at its best, it could prove to be as hollow, unsatisfying and ultimately puzzling as Bertolucci’s adaptation of Paul Bowles’ The Sheltering Sky. Locating the core of such material in a visual medium can be very challenging. And given Gudagjino and screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes previous collaboration, Challengers, one wonders if they’ll just turn up the volume on the score whenever they’re meant to depict anything dramatic or insightful.

I would actually love to see Mike Faist as a young Burroughs, pining after Kerouac and beating back the pawing sex pest, Allen Ginsburg.

Anyway, we’ll see. But they should quit with the “he’s so brave” angle. It’s disrespectful and tone deaf.

*fucking AI autocorrect- I fucking hate it

[quote] As noted, Craig has been playing gay characters throughout his entire career including originating the role of Joe Pitt in the National Theatre’s UK premiere of Angels in America back in 1993 (opposite Jason Isaac’s as Louis).

I never knew Craig was in Angels. Jason Isaacs has done interviews about Angels and participated in oral histories of the play, but I've never found any media where Craig discusses that role and what it mean to him and his career.

Jason Isaacs tells this story when the run of the play was about to end:

[quote]I remember near the end of the run I was sitting despondently in the wings. Harry Towb and Susan Engel, who played the older characters, walked by, and they could see I was a bit down in the dumps. They said, “You all right, Jase?”

[quote] I said, “I’m worried nothing I do in my career will ever touch this.”

[quote]And instead of doing what I hope I would do now and saying, “Oh, I’m sure that’s not true,” they said, “Oh yeah, we were just saying we’re glad this came toward the ends of our careers.”

I don’t know what his British stage credits were prior to Angels in 1993 but he must’ve done fringe theatre and rep, maybe other things in London. He was working professionally, on stage and on camera, from the age of 14.

When I first moved to the UK in 1996, I’d just missed what turned out to be his big break which was playing a character called Geordie Peacock in the BBC miniseries, Our Friends in the North, which was then and is still considered landmark British television. (Keep in mind, this was at the tail end of the Tory government under Thatcher and then John Major, which would fall the following year. So this story of politics and corruption among a group of four friends, broadcast for nine weeks in the age of 4 channels of terrestrial television had a HUGE weekly audience. The final scene of Craig walking over London Bridge to Oasis’ Don’t Look Back in Anger - in early 1996! - is still pretty iconic.) I imagine doing Angels, whose cast, especially Clare Holman as Harper, were lauded for years after, must’ve led to this big break.

But after North, Gina McKee (who won the BAFTA) and Christopher Eccleston were considered absolute darlings of the industry which is why they each appeared in a number of British independent films of that time, as did Craig eventually.

I first saw him in 1997’s Love is the Devil, which was a pretty high profile release in the UK, for an art film, because the Bacon estate refused to allow the use of his work in the film so there were headlines about that. (It was still a pre-internet era. So, of course, it’s the kind of thing Fleet Street would’ve made a big deal about back then.) But that proved to be a creative boon for the film’s director, John Maybury.

I’d also seen him a sort of “star-studded” production of David Rabe’s Hurlyburly, earlier in 1997 at the Old Vic, which I think was the UK premiere. I only realised this years later when I was going through theatre programmes. He was cast as Mickey, the Christopher Walken role, but he didn’t make much of an impression. He had bleached blonde hair and gave an underpowered performance in a role he wasn’t particularly well-suited for. (Rupert Graves played Eddie, the William Hurt role; Elizabeth McGovern played Darlene, the Sigourney Weaver role; Andy Serkis played Phil, the Harvey Keitel role; Kelly McDonald played the young Cynthia Nixon role - this was when Trainspotting was still in British cinemas over a year after its release.) I remember Andy Serkis was already doing his ape/King Kong stuff, roaring and stomping around the entire set was shaking and looked like it was going to fall over.

Love is the Devil and a small role in Elizabeth is what lead to his casting in supporting roles in studio films. Barbara Broccoli was the first one to cast him as a lead in a major Hollywood studio film as previously he’d only done leading roles in British independent films with Roger Michell.

His last appearance on the British stage, AFAIK, was at the Royal Court in 2002 in the world premiere of Caryl Churchill’s play, A Number, a two-handed opposite Michael Gambon (or Hambone, as he was known by regular theatregoers). Craig played the dual role of Gambon’s son and a clone of the son, and his costume of a tight white t-shirt over his muscular build and his beautiful blue eyes were kind of legendary for a while.

I just heard that Queer has a running time of 3 hours. Oh dear. Even longer than Suspiria.

Queer picked up by A24, lots of Oscar buzz for Craig’s performance. World premiere next Wednesday, the 3rd.

I read somewhere the production budget on this was over $50M. I can’t believe it.

It's gonna be such a shitshow if a straight actor gets an Oscar for a gay role over Domingo. And the dumbass quisling at r1 will be the first one to celebrate.

We all have our own Wikipedia, thanks r15.

Here's a scene from a film premiering at the festival.

The film is titled "Dammit, Where's My Oscar," although it will be released in the US as "Queer."

We’ll see. The Maria reviews seemed to have already knocked Angelina out of the race.

How are the Joker reviews?

Films and their play dates at the Venice Film Festival 2024:

Joker: Folie a Deux - September 4th (Wed)

Queer- September 3rd (Tue)

The Room Next Door (Pedro Almodóvar)- September 2nd (Mon)

Reviews should follow those debut dates.

I judge a performance on whether an actor is willing to pee next to a car or smash the windshield with a hammer.

Daniel Craig in Venice. Queer premiers on Sept. 3rd.

It’s getting unfavourable comparisons to David Lynch and, gawd help us, Ari Aster!

Early response is it’s a stylistic mess and even though it was substantial cut, it’s still way too long.

Oddly enough, no one is mentioning addiction which is what the book is all about. Guadignino and his screenwriter seem to have missed that. Also, it has two Nirvana songs.

I don’t get the Edward Hopper visual motif for a story that takes place in Mexico City, where Burroughs is in exile awaiting the statute of limitations to run out on a criminal case in Louisana.

Sounds like Guadignino went all in on the visual surrealism to the point of incoherence.

Trade reviews forthcoming.

Also, someone on Letterboxd posted, “Daniel Craig’s version of Dora the Explorer,” which is funny. (The action does progress to South America.)

Another one: “When you think you’re Stanley Kubrick but you’re really just Luca Guadignino….”

A Russian poster’s comments translate as, “ Fuck, jerk off, fuck, suck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck assholes,” which will be promising to some.

So, one of the Nirvana songs is Come As You Are.

Daniel in Venice.

I've seen this sentiment expressed a few times in the Letterboxd reviews:

[quote] Space odyssey for gay people

(The reviewer gave it four out of five stars.)

How you say Circle Jerk in Italian?

Strangely, I have no burning desire to see Daniel Craig go homo in a movie.

I get that he is considered to have been a great Bond (many claim the best since Connery). But, he's never done anything for me although the blue square cut trunks almost got me.

A short clip from "Queer."

In the press conference in Venice for "Queer", Guadagnino revealed some interesting stuff about his own life. Here he is asked why he wanted to do a story about addiction:

[quote] “I am a gentleman who goes to sleep very early, never did drugs in my life, never smoked a cigarette. I’ve gone onto a diet and I lost 15 kilos … I also can count on two hands the lovers I’ve had in my life.”

[quote] “I love having the opportunity of seeing people and not judging them — of making sure that even the worst person is represented in the right way.”

It’s a rave from Indiewire’s Ryan Lattanzio.

Similar from Deadline:

THR review:

Trade Screen Daily weighs in, a bit more suspect:

Cobain was a HUGE Burroughs fan, so it's fitting the band (and Courtney) allowed Nirvana songs in the film.

I actually read the novel as a teenager (in large part because of Cobain's mentioning Burroughs in an intewview) and it blew me away that a book like Queer could even exist. Especially to a kid living in suburban Los Angeles at the time.

Can't wait to see it.

Owen Gleiberman for Variety, mixed to qualified rave:

The Variety review makes you want to see the film, despite the admitted flaws in the film.

(The following discusses the ending of the film in general terms, so some may want to skip this excerpt.)

[quote] The film’s final shot is stunning. It shows that you after all the drugs, the warped crusades, the queerness he owned, the one thing William Burroughs could never figure out was how to heal his broken heart.

Reserved praise from THR:

R34 THAT CLIP! I'm still applauding!

the one thing William Burroughs could never figure out was how to heal his broken heart

So having the Bee Gees song is apt.

Danny interview

Queer's 11-minute standing ovation at Venice.

Daniel says ‘If I wasn’t in the movie and saw this movie, I’d want to be in it.’

Deadline reviews "Joker: Folie À Deux":

THR review:

Pretty good reviews for Joker 2. About what I expected.

FWIW, I finally watched the original a month or so ago and I was shocked at how much I liked it. I wasn't expecting to at all.

Also, it seems another raved about performance for Gaga.

Is it time for us to finally admit the girl can act?

Vanity Fair didn't care for it.

I look forward to the scene where Gaga does the Bette Davis speech from Of Human Bondage.

The critical opinion on the major leases at the Venice Film Festival (as of 9/4/24) from Rotten Tomatoes:

[quote] Joker 2 - 41 reviews- RT Score: 59% (Rotten)

[quote] Queer- 23 reviews- RT Score: 78% (Fresh)

[quote] The Room Next Door- 22 reviews- RT Score: 95% (Fresh)

[quote] Maria- 37 reviews- RT Score: 73% (Fresh)

[quote] Beetlejuice Beetlejuice- 121 reviews- RT Score: 79% (Fresh)

A movie in wide release should have around 250 to 400 reviews, so the scores for the above movies could change significantly when the films are released. The current scores are an indication of how the films were received by the critics at the 2024 Venice Film Festival.

But what of “Reagan”? What of “Reagan”?…

Can you imagine how much it must kill Madonna that Gaga has the film career she always desperately wanted? I mean, it must kill her, Oscar nomination for acting, Oscar win for Best Song - probably the best one of this century, critics prizes, huge box office successes. She must be dying.

Bad review for Joker on IndieWire.

I’ve said this before, Todd Phillips is famous for dropping the ball on sequels. Hangover 2 and 3 were terrible.