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MOVIES
Queer (2024) and Loneliness
On expectations and going to the movies blind
Recently, I finally had the chance to watch the new film by Luca Guadagnino, Queer (2024). After a long run of festivals and releases in other countries, the praise and the accompanying hype was building to enormous heights for the new release.
Luca Guadagnino already delivered my personal best film for 2024, and that was the sensational Challengers. Geared up for Queer, I was expecting a lot from the film.
The director has made a name for himself for building a rich atmosphere in his films, throughout a varied career, traversing many genres. From romantic dramas — with Call me by your Name in 2017, to blood-soaked horror — with Suspiria in 2018, to sexually overcharged sports flicks — with Challengers in 2024.
And I am always here for it.
Even more than the atmosphere he builds I have come to respect Guadagnino’s skill to subvert expectations greatly. Not in the sense of building an intricate plot and then twisting it with a huge revelation, or the more recent trend of movies changing genres completely, with a hard turn mid-way through — à la Fresh in 2022.
Guadagnino plays with expectations. As I have said before — with Challengers, he understands how to…
