Luca Guadagnino is addicted to stories of new and forbidden love. I Am Love, Call Me by Your Name, Bones & All, A Bigger Splash, and his recent tennis dramedy Challengers all focus on desire, the shock of first love, and the need for human connection. William S. Burroughs’ novella Queer makes perfect sense for Guadagnino to adapt, as the Beat Generation mainstay explored his horny quest for love in post-WWII Mexico City while struggling with self-doubt and a crippling drug addiction. The film features a show-stopping Daniel Craig in the kind of role we’ve not seen from him in far too long, and opposite Drew Starkey the two absolutely sizzle even when Guadagnino’s indulgences are like a cold shower.
Craig; sweaty, grumpy, and randy as Hell, plays William Lee, a queer American expat staying in post-war Mexico City. He’s found the perfect slice of life in a cantina that skirts by on other ex-pats like himself and college students spending freely their GI benefits. In this sketchy watering hole, Lee can smoke, drink, snort, and fuck himself into oblivion. In fact, that seems to be the entire point of being there. Lee’s a chatty guy and he often talks up the other young men, when full of enough liquid courage to do so. Even when he fails, the fog of drink obscures any embarrassment. He doesn’t have the natural charisma as his scruffy pal Joe, played by a brilliant Jason Schwartzman in a comedic supporting turn.
This psychosexual routine gets rattled when Lee meets and is instantly attracted to Eugene “Gene” Allerton, a quietly confident young man who appears to be straight. When the two first talk, the chemistry between them is clear. They begin hanging out, with Lee pushing hard for Gene to be more than a casual fling. He wants something more. Perhaps, in a way, Lee is trying to recapture his lost youth. Whatever he wants, Lee’s attempts at a relationship seem to only make Gene more closed-off.
Gene and Lee are both the same and opposites. The elder man puts everything out in the open, including his personal demons. Meanwhile, Gene keeps everything bottled up, including his true feelings for Lee. Sometimes he treats Lee, who is sometimes a public embarrassment, like he doesn’t even know him. Gene flirts with a sexy red-headed woman and puts her attention ahead of Lee’s for a time, which drives the man to some nutty dreams. Other times Gene can be very sensitive and passionate towards Lee. Both are as obsessed with themselves as they are with one another. Even when they have sex, which Guadagnino captures in all of its raw, carnal beauty, they seem to be doing it for self-fulfillment more than the pleasure of their partner.
In true Beat Generation fashion, Queer sort of rambles and wanders around narratively, with surreal and bizarre subplots winding through at odd points. An impromptu road trip to South America so Lee can indulge in the psychedelic drug yage takes a poignant turn when we discover why he wants it so badly. Once they get over being freaked out by gun-toting, snake-charming yage scientist Dr. Cotter, played by a freakish unrecognizable Lesley Manville, we learn that Lee wants to use the drug’s telepathic properties to see how Gene truly feels. This section of the story, with Challengers writer Justin Kuritzkes expanding on Burroughs’ novel considerably, injects body horror and other nightmarish elements that feel like they belong in a different movie unencumbered by weighty human themes.
Guadagnino also captures that Beat Generation spirit by moving the film along at a very deliberate, examined pace. Long stretches, especially in the first half, are slow and downright dull, making the nearly 2 1/2-hour film feel much longer. Guadagnino could’ve saved some of this for a Director’s Cut. Sure, you could do worse than watching Craig and Starkey stumble around from one cantina to the next, or into one another’s beds, especially when cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom captures it all in such beautiful, hazy glory. Even when the film threatens to become a snoozer, Guadagnino livens it up with a chorus of anachronistic musical choices. Nirvana establishes the mood immediately with a version of “All Apologies”, while another finds Lee stalking through Mexico streets to the sound of “Come As You Are”, which hits like an erotic anthem.
Craig, who somehow makes sweating through his shirt kinda sexy, has been sorely missed in this kind of role. So long we’ve seen him as James Bond or the flamboyant Benoit Blanc that we forget he can do this sort of thing. He expresses the full range of Lee’s emotions: his sadness, his frustration, his loneliness, and the way he becomes a completely different, more impulsive personality when the mood strikes. He’s accepting of the worst aspects of himself to a hilarious degree. It’s another bold move for Craig in his post-Bond career, and while some have raved over Starkey I found that he was overshadowed by Craig in almost every way. Craig is as mesmerizing as he’s ever been, and even if Queer doesn’t sound like your kind of jam, his performance is reason enough to give it a shot.
Queer is open in select cities now, everywhere on December 13th via A24.
