Queer

Luca Guadagnino continues his hot streak with this trippy and compassionate adaptation of William S. Burroughs's second novel Queer, with Daniel Craig brilliant as Burroughs stand-in 'Lee'

Film Review by Jamie Dunn | 09 Dec 2024
  • Queer
Film title: Queer
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Starring: Daniel Craig, Drew Starkey, Lesley Manville, Jason Schwartzman, Henry Zaga, Omar Apollo, Andra Ursuta, Andres Duprat, Ariel Shulman, Drew Droege, Michael Borremans, David Lowery, Lisandro Alonso, Colin Bates
Release date: 13 Dec
Certificate: 18

In Mexico City, sometime in the early 50s, an American expat in a crumpled linen suit cruises seedy bars looking for another shot of tequila and someone to take home. This is Lee (Craig), who’s stopped in his tracks one night when he claps eyes on the lean frame and delicate features of Eugene (Starkey), a younger man whose emotions, and crucially his sexuality, remain unreadable, even after he and Lee sleep together.

Craig has surely shaken the spectre of Bond with this twitchy, rakish and deeply compassionate turn. Lee cuts a pitiful figure in his various addictions, which extend beyond Eugene, but there’s also something beautifully endearing about his optimistic hunt for love and understanding. Starkey’s role is less complex: Eugene is simply an inscrutable object of lust; luminously shot by cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, it’s easy to see why he sends Lee into a horny tailspin. 

There’s a pleasing artifice to Luca Guadagnino’s vision of mid-century Mexico. Shot on expressively-lit soundstages, with miniatures charmingly deployed to depict skylines, Queer's aesthetic suggests a drug-fuelled fever dream long before Lee starts shooting up. An anachronistic soundtrack featuring the likes of Nirvana, New Order and Prince adds to the discombobulation. This confident, highly stylized film only falters in its final stretch, with Guadagnino reaching for an approximation of Lynchian surrealism to bring Lee’s search for human connection to a bitter close. But until then this is a haunting study of unrequited desire filled with heartbreak and tenderness, centred on a revelatory performance from Craig.


Released 13 Dec by MUBI; certificate 18