To be a fly on that wall…
Best known for his work as a producer and director in projects like Fellow Travelers, Halston, American Crime Story, and Game of Thrones, Daniel Minahan's latest film On Swift Horses recently premiered at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). The movie, which is set in the 1950s, centers on characters going through different journeys with sexuality and self-acceptance.
At its core, On Swift Horses features Julius (Jacob Elordi) and Henry (Diego Calva) as two characters who get into a queer romance and secretly live together in a motel room. It all starts when Julius lands a job at a Las Vegas casino and starts working with Henry, who is described as a "hustler turned mole."
"We had a week of intensive [prep] in the motel room," Elordi tells Vanity Fair about working with Calva in On Swift Horses. "Dan gave us a lot of freedom to run around and to play and to find that love within those four walls."
The publication describes that Elordi and Calva's scenes showcase "steamy sexual chemistry that includes several rich, emotional, and explicit love scenes." So, y'know, it's not like we're already SEATED to watch it or anything.
Daisy Edgar-Jones, who plays the main character of Muriel, says that On Swift Horses is a "wonderfully queer" movie. Elordi adds that the film is a "sprawling, epic, nongeneric love story — and I think that theme is entirely universal for every single person on the planet."
Different reviews have highlighted that On Swift Horses is an examination of queer people in a period when they had no other option but staying in the closet. "Though Julius has a strong sense of who he is, he feels a terror in expressing it, having experienced violence and betrayal all his life," Variety Fair's David Canfield writes. "He's a kind of classic Western loner, solving his problems by jumping from scheme to scheme."
We can't wait to see how this turns out!
On Swift Horses had its world premiere on September 7, 2024 at the Toronto International Film Festival and is expected to have a wider release in the near future.
