Queer · reception & legacy

2024 · Luca Guadagnino

How Queer has been received, argued over, and remembered.

The arc

Premiered at Venice 2024 to real awards buzz for Daniel Craig, then split critics and got completely shut out at the Oscars — a snub that's already fuelling its 'they'll come around on this one' narrative among fans.

What's debated

Is it Guadagnino's most personal, misunderstood film or his self-indulgent misfire — with the surreal final stretch the dividing line in nearly every review.

Its footprint

It lives on as the centrepiece of Daniel Craig's post-Bond reinvention — the press-tour fashion, the against-type performance — plus a much-discussed anachronistic soundtrack that drops Nirvana and New Order into 1950s Mexico City.

Where it stands

Too new to be canon, but it's already the Guadagnino film cinephiles argue about most — a likely future cult reappraisal case.

★ Did you know? Guadagnino released Queer and Challengers in the same year, 2024, both written by the same screenwriter, Justin Kuritzkes — and Queer's Mexico City was built almost entirely on soundstages at Rome's Cinecittà.

Named by the director

Influences Luca Guadagnino has publicly named — the director's own word, distinct from the inferred lines of influence.

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger — Guadagnino cited their heightened studio artifice as the model for recreating Mexico City on Cinecittà soundstages rather than shooting on location.