45/31
In 1950 Mexico City, a forty-year-old American immigrant lives a solitary life in a small American community. However, the arrival of a young student prompts the man to finally make a meaningful connection with someone. It was Daniel Craig who convinced Luca Guadagnino to cast Drew Starkey after watching Guadagnino’s audition tapes and saying «That’s the guy» upon seeing Starkey. William Lee: Sit on Your Ass! Or What’s Left of It After Four Years in the Navy. Featured on The Graham Norton Show: Daniel Craig/Nicola Coughlan/Jesse Eisenberg/Kieran Culkin/Flo (2024). I’ve never seen Naked Lunch (1991), but I found myself thinking about it frequently when I screened Queer at the 2024 London Film Festival: perhaps to be expected, as William S Burroughs provided the source material for both films. In 1950s Mexico, William Lee, an American writer on the wrong side of… forty? Fifties? He spends his days getting drunk, doing drugs, and having casual sex with other men. One day, the young, muscular Eugene walks into the bar, and Lee is defeated. But what does Eugene himself want? Plus, there’s this telepathic drug to think about… I’m not sure what, stylistically, director Luca Guadagnino is trying to accomplish with this film. The sets are decorated almost exclusively in solid colors—smooth red and olive green, for example—and have this vaguely unrealistic, clean Technicolor look that makes me think the intention was to pay homage to the films of the era in which the film takes place. But if that’s the case, why this decidedly non-rock, non-50s techno soundtrack? Daniel Craig (is it my imagination or is he starting to sound like Sid James?) is hampered in the lead role by having to constantly deliver nonsense in an accent that is clearly not his. Drew Starkey is able to give a more subtle performance as the manipulative Eugene and he certainly looks the part. Lesley Manville is unrecognizable as the doctor living in the South American jungle – kudos to the makeup team! It’s the kind of movie that seems to me to be more focused on artistic style than narrative substance. It was enjoyable to see once, but I won’t forget it again.