Fall has officially arrived with its golden-hued leaves and actors and auteurs turning in some of their best work in the season’s most anticipated new films. Case in point: Queue Issue 14 cover stars Colman Domingo and Julianne Moore’s performances in Rustin and May December, respectively.
As Bayard Rustin, Domingo brings an unsung hero to the screen. Rustin, directed by Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’s George C. Wolfe, follows the openly gay civil rights organizer in the months leading up to the monumental 1963 March on Washington, revisiting the discrimination and triumphs Rustin endured as he worked to plan the historic event. Dedicated to a life of activism and advocacy, Rustin fought to break every barrier put in front of him, and in his first leading performance, Emmy winner Domingo does the heroic figure justice. The role of Rustin felt like destiny for the actor, who first learned about the pioneer’s contributions to the civil rights movement in college. “I was just like, ‘Wait, what? So, this openly gay man organized the March on Washington and inspired Dr. King to know about passive resistance and the teachings of Gandhi . . . Why don’t I know this?’” Domingo tells Queue. “I feel like Bayard has been on my shoulder for years, saying, ‘You’re the one to tell my story.’”
In Todd Haynes’s riveting melodrama May December, Moore entirely transforms as the sanctimonious suburban matriarch Gracie Atherton-Woo, who is forced to confront a past she’d rather forget after an actor, Elizabeth Berry (played by Natalie Portman), comes to town to study Gracie in order to play her in an upcoming film. Berry’s film details Gracie’s unlawful affair with a 13-year-old boy, Joe (Charles Melton), who, at the time of Berry’s arrival, has been Gracie’s husband for a couple decades. The film marks Moore’s fifth collaboration with Haynes since the pair first worked together on the 1995 film Safe. “Working with Todd is always just miraculous and wonderful. The fact that my creative life has collided with his at all has been a miracle,” says the actor. Exploring truth, memory, and morality, May December is just as unforgettable as Moore’s haunting performance at the center.
Our 14th issue also offers a glimpse at all the enticing storytelling you can expect this fall, including first-time female filmmaker Chloe Domont’s relationship thriller Fair Play, the Annette Bening and Jodie Foster starrer NYAD, and All the Light We Cannot See, Shawn Levy’s adaption of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. We also take a look at David Fincher’s much-anticipated The Killer, which reunites the filmmaker with his Seven screenwriter, Andrew Kevin Walker. Plus, Bradley Cooper shares how the lives and love story of composer, conductor, and educator Leonard Bernstein and his wife, actor and artist Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein, inspired him to make Maestro, which Cooper directs, stars in, co-writes, and produces.
In honor of L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ History Month, the issue also features a special celebration of queer creatives and performers, highlighting the power of their presence on screen. From animated adventure Nimona, an adaptation of the beloved graphic novel from the mind of ND Stevenson, to the heartwarming relationships at the center of Heartstopper, queer films and series are redefining representation. Thanks to a new wave of emerging talent like Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget’s Bella Ramsey and ONE PIECE’s Morgan Davies, along with venerated visionaries like Rustin’s Wolfe, these stars, directors, and writers continue to make groundbreaking contributions to cinema and television and push the boundaries of what’s possible.
You can head to the Netflix shop and order the latest issue of Queue to sample these stories and much, much more.
