Few filmmakers can convey the all-consuming ache of desire and love better than Luca Guadagnino, director of the Zendaya-led “Challengers” and the Timothée Chalamet front-loaded “Call Me By Your Name.” His latest aria in cinematic form sounds an even more more melancholic chord about the entanglements of romance and our need for companionship.
Told vignette style and with bursts of Daliesque surrealism, “Queer’s” narrative approach won’t win over the hearts of literal-minded moviegoers. Yet the elliptical approach is appropriate given the tricky, meandering source — author William S. Burroughs’ semi-autobiographical novel. Burroughs’ work crawled into the shaky psyche of an often inebriated U.S. expat (the author’s alter ego) and observes how he lusts after, pursues and falls for an enigmatic hunky younger guy in 1950s Mexico City.
Guadagnino remains resolved to telling us stories about flawed protagonists, and William Lee is one of his most unmoored, challenging characters to date: a gay heroin addict desperately seeking to fill a gaping hole inside of himself at a time where the world discards and shuns people like him.
It’s a hard role for an actor to pin down and is also one that could easily encourage a lesser actor to cave into awards-bait histrionics and shrieking bouts of detoxing sweats and shivers. Daniel Craig, though, makes us forget that he once was James Bond and avoids the obvious tactics to deliver a heartbreaking performance of a soul aching for someone who can make him whole. It’s one of 2024’s most naked, vulnerable and raw performances.
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William’s latest addiction materializes in the strapping form of the boyishly handsome but coquettishly distanced Eugene Allerton (“Outer Banks’” Drew Starkey, portraying the object of detached desire with a natural surety). Their dance of attraction and ensuing bouts of lovemaking (yes, they’re sweaty, clingy and hot) serve as a jarring contrast to Will’s insubstantial paid hookups (sexy singer Omar Apollo being one.)
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“Queer’s” episodic structure and its late-in-the-game shift to a South American rain forest trek — Lee and Eugene are after a vine with psychedelic, potential telepathic properties — is indeed off-centering. But that is sort of the drug-hazy point here, reflective of its characters’ blurred lines of reality.
The sequence does produce big rewards in the form of a barely recognizable Lesley Manville as a doc in dire need of intense dental care; as well as a transformative, erotic scene of drug-induced dance that melds the bodies of both characters in a semblance of wholeness. It, as do many other scenes, merits cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom – a frequent Guadagnino collaborator – awards consideration.
“Queer” also beguiles us with its lush production design from Stefano Baisi. He re-creates the stunning look of 1950s Mexico City and and enhances it all with splashes of irresistible bold colors. Also enhancing this moodiness is an era-defiant soundtrack featuring Nirvana, Prince and more. Sounds like it would be a car wreck, but it works.
The crowning achievement, though, comes in a heart-wrenching epilogue with which screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes (“Challengers”) and Guadagnino broaden out Burroughs’ short tale. It’s a grand beauty and emotional climax that stays true to the essence of the story.
‘QUEER’
3½ stars out of 4
Rated: R (sexual content and language, nudity, drug use)
Starring: Daniel Craig, Drew Starkey
Director: Luca Guadagnino
When & where: Opens in select Bay Area theaters Dec. 6, opens wide Dec. 13