Queer (2024)
Directed by: Luca Guadagnino
Premise: Based on the novel by William S. Burroughs. Set in 1950s Mexico City, Lee (Daniel Craig) pursues a relationship with Allerton (Drew Starkey). The two of them travel south in search of a rare plant with hallucinogenic properties.
What Works: Queer is fairly explicit in its sexuality but the film is not primarily about being gay. Lee starts the film living an indulgent existence, spending his days and nights drinking and chasing men in Mexico City’s gay subculture circa 1950. When Allerton catches his eye, Lee is willing to restrain his sexual appetite and brings Allerton along on a journey into the jungle in search of a botanist studying a plant that creates a hallucinogenic experience when consumed. This is a story of decadence running up against the desire for a meaningful life and genuine human connection. That could be the formula of a rote romance in which the player abandons hedonism for monogamy but Queer is something else. It’s a film about a connection between these two men but also the way Lee understands himself. An elaborate surreal sequence in the film’s climax visualizes the way our concept of the self is changed by human relationships; where we end and another person begins can become complicated in romantic and emotional entanglements. This can be quite scary and even traumatic and those fears are also found in this film. Queer has terrific production design. The story is set in mid-twentieth century Mexico City and the location is recreated with a heightened reality; it’s not quite realistic but this works for the film’s style. Queer is beautifully shot. The action is staged in ways that draw out the subtext; the sexuality has a lot of heat to it but the blocking of the actors emphasizes the relationships between the characters. Queer also has some terrific performances, namely by Daniel Craig as Lee. The character is messy and even pathetic; the yearning for validation and to be seen is evident throughout Craig’s performance. Less showy but no less important is Drew Starkey as Allerton. He’s rather cold but by necessity and there are some subtle details to his performance that reveal the character’s inner life. Jason Schwartzman appears in the film as a comical character and he adds some humor and warmth to the movie.
What Doesn’t: Queer is based on a William S. Burroughs novel and so viewers can expect that matters are going to get surreal. Much of Queer is straightforward only to push into the surreal in the film’s final portion. The surreal segments are appropriate to the material but they are isolated from much of the rest of the picture. The film ends somewhat abruptly. After spending so much time with Lee and Allerton, their relationship comes to an unceremonious conclusion. That’s partly the point—the two men have a revelation about themselves and each other that’s too much to bear—but the emotional fallout of the climax is stunted.
Bottom Line: Queer is a challenging film that provokes us to think about the way the body and our sexuality shape to our sense of self and how those things figure into our relationships with other people. These ideas are dramatized effectively through Daniel Craig’s performance.
Episode: #1028 (December 22, 2024)