From Jeff Nelson

Luca Guadagnino is a creative match made in heaven for a cinematic adaption of William S. Burroughs’ 1985 novella, Queer. He has a firm grasp on the original story’s nuanced thematics of male loneliness, aging, addiction, and unrequited love, further elevating its bitter melancholy with oodles of style. However, a mid-story pivot doesn’t successfully translate very well to the screen.

Set in late 1940s New Mexico, William Lee (Daniel Craig) floats from one club to the next after fleeing from a drug bust in New Orleans. He quickly develops a deep infatuation with a younger man named Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey), a discharged Navy serviceman.

The first hour or so of Queer is an astonishing wonder. Guadagnino is a master of capturing romantic and sexual desire. His filmography utilizes this storytelling gift in nuanced ways, and Queer’s narrative puts it front and center. Lee is a middle-aged gay man, well known by his fellow bar patrons for his intentions. He has a lecherous, drug and alcohol-fueled gaze that transforms into frustration when he doesn’t achieve the attention he yearns for. 

Allerton may be a fellow American, but Lee stands on unfamiliar ground in determining the younger man’s sexual orientation. Their blossoming friendship doesn’t address the elephant in the room, refusing to speak frankly. Lee’s opiate addiction and Allerton’s cold indifference make for an impenetrable love story that Guadagnino’s stylistic direction expresses in other ways. His lens tells their perplexing relationship with a double vision where intention and reality share the frame.

Queer doubles down on its hypnotic qualities when Lee convinces Allerton to follow him on a trip to the Amazon rainforest to search for a drug called “yage,” which he believes will grant telepathic abilities. The change in setting further draws Lee’s vulnerabilities to the surface, including the unspoken pain he harbors. Casual sex, love, drugs, and alcohol act as a toxic cycle to cope with his debilitating loneliness. The pursuit of yage serves a purpose in the narrative and the character’s journey, but it’s also a weak point that drags to the point of meandering tedium.

Guadagnino and screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes (who also wrote Challengers) look beyond Burroughs’ novella, further closing the gaps between fiction and truth. Lee and Allerton are thinly drawn characters on the surface that prove infinitely more complicated in small, contemplative moments. Queer fully retreats into itself in the third act, where time folds in on itself. The past, present, and future collide into a fantastical trip that makes the totality of Lee’s journey more fulfilling.

The setting change marks a slump in Queer, but its distinct visual storytelling never falters. Cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom makes a textured picture that evolves along with Lee’s journey. This isn’t the first time they’ve worked together. From the scenic Italian beauty of Call Me by Your Name to the gritty grotesqueness of Suspiria and the propelling vitality of Challengers, Guadagnino and Mukdeeprom’s collaborations come with unparalleled cinematic excellence. 

Meanwhile, Craig makes his debut in Guadagnino’s world of vulnerability as Lee. Mass audiences associate him with the suave James Bond image he concluded in 2021 with No Time to Die. Beyond Queer’s glimpses into more erotic territory, this performance is Craig’s riskiest and most dynamic one yet. His growing obsession with Starkey’s Allerton is convincing, but he consistently outshines his co-star. Much like his character, Starkey’s one-note coldness is impenetrable. It makes one question why Lee would chase him beyond his looks. 

Between Guadagnino and Kuritzkes’ two movies released in 2024, this period romance is the second best. The first hour’s wandering nature is deeply compelling, lightly reminiscent of Claire Denis’ 1999 masterpiece Beau Travail. Queer has an ethereal melancholy that is utterly spellbinding until it loses its way. It surrenders much of its hard-earned soul in a slow-moving second act that invests too much of its time in the wrong place. 

Rating: 3/5

Queer hits theaters on November 27th, 2024.

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