Queer
Daniel Craig gives the performance of his life as a gay expat hanging out in 1950s’ Mexico City.
Drew Starkey and Daniel Craig
Image courtesy of Mubi.
Many fans of Daniel Craig – and especially those who like to think of him as James Bond – will be shocked to find him starring in Queer. There are, in fact, two reasons why that might be the case. The first is that Queer sees him playing the role of William Lee, a gay American writer, created by William S. Burroughs in the 1950s and based on his own experiences. In no way an incidental feature, the gay aspect is absolutely central and involves several candid sex scenes. But it may be that the more disconcerting factor for these people will lie in Queer being a resolutely arthouse film of a kind likely to displease those whose preferred viewing is centred on mainstream offerings. Nevertheless, anyone who is a connoisseur of great acting would be missing something special if they choose to ignore Queer: I am not the first critic to declare that Craig’s portrayal of William Lee is the finest performance that he has yet given.
I should perhaps mention that my own knowledge of the works of William S. Burroughs is very limited essentially stemming from David Cronenberg's 1991 film version of his novel Naked Lunch, a piece provocative, intriguing and utterly bizarre. It was only by looking up the details that I discovered that the novel Queer was put to one side unfinished but nevertheless became a published work in 1985 about thirty years after it was written. This screen adaptation by Justine Kuritzkes retains the period setting of the 1950s but does so in a film which does not hesitate to incorporate a number of pop songs from a later age on its soundtrack (Nirvana, Prince and New Order are amongst those featured). Similarly, a degree of artificiality is a conscious part of the film’s style including the decision to film on sets at the Cinecittà Studios in Rome used to represent a very different location, Mexico City.
The director here is Luca Guadagnino of Call Me By Your Name and he takes the opportunity to reference other works (on a visit to a cinema Lee sees Jean Cocteau’s Orphée while books to be glimpsed include one about Visconti and John O'Hara's novel Appointment in Samarra). If the nod to Visconti points to Lee's pursuit of a youth as an echo of Death in Venice (albeit that Drew Starkey’s Eugene Allerton is a young man and not a boy), the look of Queer and its colour design in particular invokes such Fassbinder works as Fear Eats the Soul (1974). The memorable photography is by Sayombhu Mukdeeprom.
Queer is a film in three chapters followed by an epilogue. The first chapter, the Mexico City part of the story, takes up more or less the first half of the film and it works a treat. Here Guadagnino directs with absolute assurance and, with a screenplay that is notably literate, we get a period recreation of a gay lifestyle that reflects the times. Lee himself regularly frequents a gay bar known as the Ship Ahoy where Joe Guidiry (Jason Schwartzman), another writer and barfly, is often to be found along with the likes of a younger gay man, Tom Williams (Colin Bates). Lee is someone who carries a gun and while embracing his sexuality regards himself as a macho guy to the extent that he disdains the likes of the drag queen John Dumé (Drew Droege) who usually hangs out with other effeminates at the Green Lantern. Lee’s prejudice seems to stem largely from the fact that in the 1950s Dumé was the very image of what a homophobic society believed all gay men to be and Lee knows that he represents the kind of gay man who is quite different from that. Despite the film’s artificial aspects, the atmosphere that it captures feels as authentic as John Huston’s portrayal of another man in Mexico self-destructively drinking, that being 1984’s Under the Volcano. Even more importantly Guadagnino's film is suffused with the ambience of the gay world so that, however uncomfortable some attitudes may seem today, it is a totally convincing period piece and in its first half one of the most authentic gay movies ever made.
This quality is such that the Mexican city scenes are compelling even if the plot is largely limited to Lee's instant attraction to the much younger Eugene and his subsequent obsession not just to go to bed with him but to ascertain if the young man is indeed gay or merely possesses a curiosity that makes him ready to experiment. It is the emotion that overwhelms Lee for the first time that renders him a vulnerable figure, something superbly brought out in Craig's performance. But if that sustains the first half of the film what follows is less satisfying. The crucial development in the tale stems from Lee's conviction that, if he can obtain the hallucinogen known as yagé or ayahuasca, taking it will give him telepathic powers and an awareness of what Eugene is really feeling. Chapter 2 of the film entitled "Travelling Together" moves to South America where Lee seeks withdrawal from his heroin addiction and gains information about where yagé might be acquired. The journey by Lee and Eugene to obtain it takes us to Ecuador for Chapter 3, ‘The Botanist in the Jungle’. Here they encounter Dr Cotter long established out there and they are eventually able to persuade her that they are serious about using the drug despite knowing that it is dangerous and aware that it doesn't create a high.
If Chapter 2, the shortest section, feels close to treading water, the final chapter is longer but the whole idea of Lee's belief in what the drug might do seems rather far-fetched and the material now lacks much of the interest found earlier. It does, however, help that the role of Dr Cotter is taken by the admirable Lesley Manville, oddly cast and almost unrecognisable but spot-on as ever. This final chapter does lead to surreal images including body changes and ultimately a temporary fusion of bodies. But if that takes the film closer to the Burroughs of Naked Lunch it plays as visual cinematic trickery rather than anything more meaningful. Thereafter Queer offers us an epilogue that takes place two years later back in Mexico City. When Lee goes to the Sailor Ahoy and meets up once more with his friend Joe the scene plays naturalistically but what follows is increasingly fantastical. That could of course be ascribed to Lee's experience consequent on taking the yagé or other drugs. However, it does enable the film to make use of a famous incident in the life of Burroughs himself but transposed to fit Lee and Eugene. All this comes across as weird rather than effective, but it leads to a concluding scene which, however stylised, is compelling and works emotionally. The earlier sex scenes have shown desire expressing itself with a tenderness which might not be expected and Lee is shown ultimately as a man who has never achieved fulfilment of the need that took him by surprise. It's a telling ending but nothing else in the second half has the impact of the earlier scenes. Nevertheless, in a well-made film Craig is outstanding throughout and the first part is a tour-de-force.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Daniel Craig, Drew Starkey, Jason Schwartzman, Lesley Manville, Colin Bates, Henrique Zaga, Drew Droege, Ariel Shulman, David Lowery, Lisandro Alonso, Daan de Wit, Andra Ursuta, Ronia Ava.
Dir Luca Guadagnino, Pro Luca Guadagnino and Lorenzo Mieli, Screenplay Justin Kuritzkes, from the novel by William S. Burroughs, Ph Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, Pro Des Stefano Baisi, Ed Marco Costa, Music Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Costumes Jonathan W. Anderson.
Fremantle/The Apartment/Frenesy Film CompanyFremantle Media North America/Cinecittà/Frame by Frame-Mubi.
137 mins. Italy/USA. 2024. UK Rel: 13 December 2024. Cert. 18.
