Guadagnino’s intoxicating adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ novella about the sensual connection between two men exudes profound feelings that coalesce and ache the body, mind and soul, boasting what could be a career-best performance by Daniel Craig.
Review #2,977
Dir. Luca Guadagnino
2024 | US, Italy | Drama | 137min | 1.85:1 | English, French & Spanish
R21 (edited) for strong sexual content, graphic nudity, strong drug content, language and brief violence.
Cast: Daniel Craig, Drew Starkey, Jason Schwartzman, Lesley Manville, Henry Zaga
Plot: In 1950s Mexico City, an American immigrant in his late forties leads a solitary life amidst a small American community. However, the arrival of a young student stirs the man into finally establishing a meaningful connection with someone.
Awards: Nom. for Golden Lion & Queer Lion (Venice); Nom. for Best Leading Actor – Drama (Golden Globes)
International Sales: The Veterans / CAA Media Finance
Accessibility Index
Subject Matter: Slightly Mature – LGBTQ; Intimacy & Connection; Existential Angst
Narrative Style: Slightly Complex
Pace: Slightly Slow
Audience Type: Slightly Arthouse
Viewed: Screener
Spoilers: No
Note: This review is based on the uncut version of the film.
Some might disagree, but I thought this was an even better film than Challengers, the other feature that the tireless Luca Guadagnino released last year. It brought me to a place that I never thought was possible, such was its intoxicating atmosphere of hallucinatory lusting and yearning.
Despite its title, it is a film that is more than its queer trappings. No less sensual than Call Me by Your Name (2017), yet more soulful and existential than one might give it credit for, it is no surprise that Queer is an adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ novella of the same name, such is its mosaic-like cinematic treatment by Guadagnino.
Told in three progressively bizarre chapters and a melancholy epilogue, Queer starts off like any other movie about one person becoming obsessively infatuated with another.
Daniel Craig, in what could be a career-best performance, is Lee, an American expat staying in Mexico City. His days and nights are fuelled by alcohol, drugs and sex with men, until an encounter with a younger man, Allerton (Drew Starkey with his soul-piercing stare), awakens his desire to connect emotionally.
“I’m not queer. I’m disembodied.”
In search of a rare plant that has hallucinogenic properties that can induce telepathy (mind you, this is set in the ‘50s, where Cold War experimentation with mind control was a thing…), the duo embark on a journey into the heart of darkness, somewhere deep in the jungles of South America.
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross give us some of their most affecting music to date, capturing the existential angst of Lee, whose rendezvous with Allerton would change his inner compass and proclivity towards life and the endless search for meaning.
It is only darn right then that Guadagnino would insert more than one reference to Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).
Queer isn’t sentimental about its characters; neither is it a purely intellectual exercise. What it achieves is something more emotionally nebulous, a cloud of undefined but profound feelings that coalesces and aches the body, mind and soul.
Grade: A-
Trailer:
Music:
Eternality Tan 
[…] Queer (2024) […]
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