10 reasons to be very excited for the big queer autumn of 2022

Queeries is a column by CBC Arts producer Peter Knegt that queries LGBTQ art, culture and/or identity through a personal lens. 

Although summer is often represented as the definitive season of LGBTQ spirit, it's actually autumn that is the queerest season of them all. Think about it: between Halloween (our holiday), the endless possibilities of fall fashion, and the fact that all the leaves decide to transition into new colours before flying free of their origins, there is clearly no queerer time.

That's especially true this year, thanks to an incoming blast of LGBTQ culture that will ease even the greatest summer enthusiasts into the colder weather. Here's a taste of what's to come:

A ton of stuff that just came out that you can enjoy right now or in the near future

Autumn technically started a couple weeks ago, and so did its cornucopia of queer or queer-adjacent offerings. Here are some things you can do literally right after you're done reading this:

• buy a ticket to Billy Eichner's excellent gay rom com Bros (which could use all the support it can get)
   
• turn on the 30-years-in-the-making sequel to cult classic Hocus Pocus on Disney+
   
• stream the long-awaited new albums from queer icons Björk and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O
   
• order the latest books from Billy Ray Belcourt (A Minor Chorus, which has already been longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize) and Andrew Sean Greer (Less is Lost, the sequel to one of my favourite works of queer fiction in the past decade, his Pulitzer Prize-winning Less: A Novel)

We're also only halfway through the new season of HBO's Los Espookys. Big queer fall starts now!

The White Lotus 2: Sicilian Boogaloo

We do have to wait just a little bit longer for what is arguably the television event of the fall, queer or otherwise. On October 30th, HBO will debut the first episode of The White Lotus Season 2 (which is actually called The White Lotus: Sicily, but I like my title better), which will continue running into mid-December and surely be the talk of the homosexual internet the entire time.

Recent Emmy Award winner Jennifer Coolidge is, notably, the only returning cast member as the series moves from Hawaii to the titular Italian island and to a different resort in the White Lotus universe. She'll be joined by the likes of F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hollander, Michael Imperioli, Theo James, Haley Lu Richardson and Aubrey Plaza in various roles as the hotel's staff and guests. And while it'll be hard for that cast to top the iconic likes of their predecessors (who got eight Emmy nominations and two wins between them), there are few creative minds we trust as much as White Lotus maestro Mike White.

Cate Blanchett in TÁR

I have seen TÁR, and I will only say that I am forever changed as a result. Todd Field's first film since 2006's Little Children, it features Cate Blanchett in a towering, monstrous performance in which Blanchett truly out-Blanchetts herself. Queers will talk about her performance as an EGOT-winning lesbian composer at every dinner party for the next six months.

Go in knowing as little about it as possible when it slowly opens over the course of October (it premieres on the 14th in Toronto and the 21st in Montreal and Vancouver). You might see me there, because I will definitely need another hit of TÁR soon.

Awards season is back, baby

Autumn isn't the only season in town — we're also a few weeks into the six or so months where a certain segment of the population (myself included) becomes severely preoccupied with all things awards. And after two years plagued by a literal plague but also all sorts of other unfortunate drama, this season so far seems like it could be a comparatively quite joyful one. Or at least an incredibly exciting one.

Take the best actress race for example, which already seems poised to be one for the ages: our current Oscar predictions have the aforementioned Cate Blanchett up against Olivia Colman, Viola Davis, Michelle Williams and Michelle Yeoh, a.k.a. the five women I'd most want at my dinner party. And while it'll be a while before we find out if they actually make the Oscar cut, we already know one winner and they're exceptionally queer: the cast of Fire Island, who will receive a special ensemble award at next month's Gotham Awards (the first official ceremony on the circuit).

A24's fall movies

This year alone, indie film distributor A24 has already bestowed us with the likes of Everything Everywhere All At Once, Marcel The Shell With Shoes On, Bodies Bodies Bodies and Pearl. But they've saved quite the slate for the last few months of the year, with much of it involving queer stories.

On November 18th, they're releasing Elegance Bratton's The Inspection, which follows Ellis (Jeremy Pope), a young Black American who joins the Marine Corps in the era of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" after his mother (Gabrielle Union) throws him out on the streets for being gay at the age of 16. A few weeks later (on December 9th), they'll be offering us Darren Arofonsky's The Whale, which finds queer screenwriter Samuel D. Hunter adapting his own play of the same name. It centres on an obese man (Brendan Fraser, already winning raves on the festival circuit) trying to reconnect with his daughter (Sophie Sink) years after he abandoned his family for his gay lover, who has since died.

Add these to Belgium's acclaimed 2022 Oscar entry Close (which won raves at Cannes for its depiction of a queer teenager), Joanna Hogg's The Eternal Daughter (starring our queer queen Tilda Swinton in dual roles as a mother and daughter) and Charlotte Wells' Aftersun (which has nothing specifically queer about it but is both deeply moving and features many scenes in which Paul Mescal is not wearing a shirt, so...) and you've got yourself quite a few reasons to be heading to the movie theatre before year's end.

The pileup of pop music in mid-October

It's already been a pretty incredible year for pop music either by or heavily geared toward LGBTQ folks (see: Charli XCX, King Princess, MUNA, and, of course, Beyoncé). But over the course of just eight days in October, 2022 is going to outdo itself with the releases of new albums from Ava Max (Diamonds & Dancefloors, out October 14th), Tove Lo (Dirt Femme, also the 14th), Carly Rae Jepsen (The Loneliest Time, the 21st) and Taylor Swift (Midnights, also the 21st).

Obviously, one of these releases might be more heavily anticipated by society at large, but I for one plan on being equally fed by all four.

A TV show based on Tegan and Sara's teen years

October is also set to be a historic month for representation of... queer twins. Specifically, queer twins who grew up in Calgary and turn out to become a world famous pop music duo. Because on October 14th, Amazon will debut the series High School, an adaptation of Tegan and Sara Quin's 2019 joint memoir of the same name.

The Quins teamed up with filmmaker Clea Duvall (who you may know as an actor in films like But I'm a Cheerleader and Girl, Interrupted or from her turn directing Kristen Stewart in Happiest Season) for the series, which will chronicle their youth in the suburbs of Calgary. Newcomers Railey and Seazynn Gilliland play Tegan and Sara, respectively, while Cobie Smulders is also on board to portray their mom. I caught the first few episodes when they screened at the Toronto International Film Festival last month, and I can assure you that you're in for a heartfelt treat.

A very queer new take on Interview with the Vampire 

As a property, Interview with the Vampire has always been easily read as queer, whether it was through Anne Rice's 1976 novel or Neil Jordan's 1994 film adaptation starring Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and a pint-sized Kirsten Dunst. But it's never quite been as explicitly so as in the new AMC TV series that debuted on October 2nd and will continue airing through November.

The new take on Rice's world stars Jason Anderson as Louis, Sam Reid as Lestat and Bailey Bass as Claudia, and it is earning rave reviews for its embrace of "both the intellectual and the carnal in ways that aren't often seen on TV and were arguably even lacking from Jordan's version." It's also already been renewed for a second season, so get ready for more queer vampire autumns to come.

Two tear-jerking gay romantic dramas 

Good news for those of you who watched gay romantic comedies Fire Island and Bros and wished they were more sad! A duo of much more tragic gay love stories will be coming your way soon.

First is Michael Grandage's My Policeman, otherwise known as "the other movie Harry Styles debuted at a film festival in September." Available to stream on Amazon Prime on November 4th, it's set in 1950s England and stars Styles as a closeted cop who falls in love with a museum curator (David Dawson), obviously much to the annoyance of his wife (Emma Corrin).

Then, on December 2, director Michael Showalter will follow up his Oscar-winning The Eyes of Tammy Faye with Spoiler Alert, an adaptation of Michael Ausiello's heartbreaking (though also admittedly quite funny) memoir about losing his husband to cancer. Jim Parsons stars as Ausiello, with the always-welcome Sally Field showing up as his mother-in-law. So if you want to cry some big gay tears, take your pick.

All the drag racing you could possibly ask for

There's now enough drag-oriented reality television to watch every night of the week year-round if you wanted to, and this autumn will be no exception. And with colder nights on the horizon, we are certainly not complaining.

Between the first season of Drag Race Philippines (on now), the second season of Call Me Mother (premiering October 26th), the fourth season of Ru Paul's Drag Race UK (which just premiered), the fifth season of The Boulet Brothers' Dragula (TBD, but rumoured to be arriving in October) and the very first edition of Canada's Drag Race: Canada vs. the World (also rumoured to start this month), you could build your entire queer autumn around watching drag at home if you wanted to. (That said, given everything else on this list, we'd advise against that.)