Review: Love is a haunting melody the searching hero of ‘Queer’ may never master (2024)

Luca Guadagnino’s richly realized film surprises with a passionate William S. Burroughs adaptation and a vulnerable Daniel Craig.

Daniel Craig, left, and DrewStarkey star as men who meet in 1950s MexicoCity in “Queer.”

Photo: Yannis Drakoulidis/Associated Press

The gay sex scenes with the man best known as James Bond may cause a stir around Luca Guadagnino’s adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ “Queer,” starring Daniel Craig, but what will linger is the movie‘s intense intimacy.

More than anything, it’s about first love, as stumbled upon by a jaded, expat, hard-drinking, 40-something heroin addict in 1950s Mexico City. Craig’s vulnerability beneath a crusty shell will have him in the awards discussion.

As William Lee, Burroughs’ frequent literary stand-in, Craig occasionally conveys Burroughs’ trademark sardonic, nasal twang. He’s every inch the urbane intellectual with a decidedly transgressive bent and a pistol on his hip. But what we really feel from him is a longing that his wit, tequila shots and shooting up can’t banish. He’s an American on the make, sure, but scoring with some hot, young hustler leaves an emptiness behind. This is far too grown-up and cynical a world to speak a word such as “love” out loud, but that’s the drug the searching Lee has never tried, and, of course, the easiest to get hooked on. When unrequited, it’s the hardest to kick.

Lee wastes his time loitering about with the expat community, day drinking with doughy, unlucky-in-love Joe (a vaguely Allen Ginsberg-y Jason Schwartzman). Then he catches sight of young, beautiful ex-serviceman Eugene (Drew Starkey). What follows is the push and pull of falling; Lee is, excruciatingly, unable to stop himself from that pulling that pushes away.

Daniel Craig, left, and Lesley Manville in “Queer.”

Photo: Associated Press

To be clear, “Queer” is not exactly a romance. But it’s more observant than most romantic films in that its imbalance totters truthfully; as the poet sang, “Love is never equal/ … Someone always loves more than the other.” We feel Lee’s yearning to touch, restrained by insecurity. Our perspective is exclusively Lee’s, so Eugene often seems a cipher — “What does he want? Does he want me? Does he want her?” But there’s a clarity to Starkey’s performance, as if Eugene does know what he wants, though Lee can’t figure it out. It rings true of the seeming cruelty of the one who simply doesn’t love as much as the other.

Guadagnino’s filmmaking has never been more vivid. Shot almost entirely on set (in Rome), the movie’s vintage Mexico City is gorgeously painted with rich colors that feel like oversaturated recollection. His use of hues — a blue distressed wall, the green of an icebox in an otherwise darkened room — lingers. Production designer Stefano Baisi and Thai cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, a frequent collaborator of Guadagnino’s, create a world as indelible and unreliable as memory, whether in private nights or romantic tones of dusk. The director is in complete control of the frame. No camera movement is without purpose.

The film indulges in some anachronistic needle drops (ahem, Burroughs fans) — shout out for the use of the obscure “Piano & a Microphone 1983” version of Prince’s “17 Days” — but it’s the Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross score that haunts. Some passages are perfect companions for the intimacy Lee and Eugene fleetingly achieve.

Daniel Craig, left, and DrewStarkey are American expats who meet in Mexico City in “Queer.”

Photo: Yannis Drakoulidis/Associated Press

Among the supporting players, Lesley Manville fans will be delighted to see her cast against type as a wild-eyed botanist who has seen some … stuff over years in the jungle. Schwartzman turns in one of his funniest performances as Lee’s luckless fellow expat looking for love with all the wrong burglars.

The sex scenes are, indeed, daring for mainstream-ish cinema — certainly for a film boasting an iconic lead actor — and are just right for this story. They convey the nature of the entanglement and leave Lee, and the viewer, with lingering details: the way only this lover touches, the intoxication and hope sparked by a leg wrapping over a leg.

None of this would land without Craig’s dark and fragile performance. He’s fully committed. There are moments when those shocking blue eyes flash hard and we’re reminded of his famous screen alter ego (no gadgets, no punches), but his Lee is full and complex. He’s a man who has come far and seen much, only to learn “The difficulty is to convince someone else he’s really part of you.”

Michael Ordoña is a freelance writer.

More Information

Review: Love is a haunting melody the searching hero of ‘Queer’ may never master (1)

“Queer”: Drama. Starring Daniel Craig, Drew Starkey, Jason Schwartzman, Lesley Manville. Directed by Luca Guadagnino. (R. 135 minutes.) In select theaters Wednesday, Nov. 27.

  • Michael Ordoña

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