I just saw it this afternoon. (Jealous, bitches?) I'm afraid I must beg to differ regarding Drew Starkey, and I think the queens gushing over him in the early posts sound like teen girls crushing on the new boy in 7th grade. I've watched all four seasons of "Outer Banks." He has more range on THAT total POS show than in this movie, though as already noted Eugene's intentionally aloof. His physical appeal is obvious, but the movie doesn't show the audience more than that (we're apparently supposed to just "assume" Lee sees something in him, I guess).
What Luca did get right this time – FINALLY – are the sex scenes. I was disappointed that there's only a single scene with them fucking, but Luca got them to do something you REALLY rarely see in film or TV, particularly in the era of "intimacy coordinators": actual, open-mouth, tongue-heavy kissing! THAT was actually the hottest part! Drew was fully believable in terms of attraction to Daniel Craig, but he didn't even bother to modulate the rural North Carolina accent he has IRL and on "Outer Banks." He also displayed very little emotion, though I'll decline on going into that lest the neurodivergent troll makes something stupid of it.
Also, there's a second full-frontal scene early in the movie, but not Starkey, Craig or Omar Apollo. Also, R113, they used a body double for that one scene. (There's a reason it's shot at a distance and only lasts a few seconds, with no close-ups.) Not sure what "cum gutters" we're supposed to be seeing, but if we're talking ACTUAL cum, there was a bunch more of it in "Fellow Travelers." (Here you can see Craig & Starkey wiping off their mouths & hands after blowing each other and Lee being jerked off by Eugene, but no real jizz.)
R104, I'm assuming you haven't seen it, otherwise you'd know that a lot of the film's third act was filmed on location in Sardinia (improbably doubling for northern South America), though Cinecitta was the location for everything set in Mexico. It has a few beach scenes set in South America that definitely weren't faked in a studio.
On whole I thought it was an excellent film – Craig merits an Oscar nom, but probably won't get it – but it's even more depressing than "All of Us Strangers," and that's likely the most depressing gay movie I've seen in the past decade. I haven't read the book, so I admittedly lack its context, but the entire thing is drenched in '50s-era homophobic self-loathing. OTOH I'd also describe "Fellow Travelers" as such, and if you liked that, you'll probably like this as well.
Finally, they're not mentioned in any of the press I've read about it yet, but the movie has two actors who are both better than Drew Starkey, and to such an extent that I didn't even recognize them till the credits! Jason Schwartzman is unrecognizable as a severely overweight Mexico City queen, and Lesley Manville shows up in a role I'll merely describe as "unexpected" (but is also unrecognizable, and unlike Starkey, she smothered her English accent).
Starkey seems like a nice enough guy, but he's not "Chalamet 2.0," plus Craig steals every scene he's in (as one would expect), and I'm not seeing how this'll open any acting doors for him. (If he ends up coming out due to fan pressure, however, that could be another story.)
P.S. One slight weirdness: in the early scene with Omar Apollo, he approaches Lee clearly full-frontal – but apparently a prosthetic, given its size – but also entirely flaccid. Lee starts sucking him off literally five seconds later. Why wouldn't he have had a boner even while walking over to get his dick sucked?