Queer (2024) Review

Queer (2024)
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Screenwriter: Justin Kuritzkes
Starring: Daniel Craig, Drew Starkey, Jason Schwartzman, Henrique Zaga, Lesley Manville

William S. Burroughs was a self-hating gay man whose life was full of failure and abuse. He was also one of the most influential writers of the mid-20th century, and an inspiration for the counter-culture movement. If you know anything about him, it’s the great scandal of his life – he murdered Joan Vollmer, his wife, at a party in Mexico. He lived a long life, and is a complicated figure in literary studies and progressivism due to his beliefs and actions.

But that’s not important to Luca Guadagnino’s Queer. His adaptation of Burroughs’ novel resonates as a surreal story of queer love in a world where acknowledgment of the concept is still viewed as pushing political agendas. It’s blunt and filled with the kinds of moments of wonder and beauty that adaptations need off the page.

Queer follows William Lee (Daniel Craig), an American in Mexico City who pursues the younger Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey). Through the blossoming of their relationship, they travel to South America, where they seek the yage root, and Allerton cares for Lee through bouts of junk sickness. Ultimately, they seek to find who they really are, both as individuals and to each other.

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Guadagnino set expectations high with his first 2024 release Challengers, and it wouldn’t be surprising if achieving back-to-back great films were too great of a challenge. All filmmakers inevitably have their latest film compared with their bests, with their classics, with their “old stuff.” Queer’s themes aren’t too far off from Call Me By Your Name, but it does manage to be its own beast through its direction, style, and music. It’s an experience that will keep Guadagnino’s other films at the door as it drags you into its strange reality.

The vision of the film is singular and tight on Lee. There are few moments lacking his presence. The camera helps to maintain this perspective through very sparse wide shots – the tight interiors mirror the lack of freedom of self that Lee feels. There’s distance between he and Allerton despite their seemingly close relationship. Even shots in the jungle create the feeling of an inescapable box that flies in the face of the idea of the jungle as wild freedom away from society.

Daniel Craig and Drew Starkey are well-cast in their roles. Starkey gives a good performance, but especially stands out in his ability to fit the period style. He might be real, he might be one of Lee’s fantasies, but you’d never know from how natural Starkey is in every moment. Craig is, unsurprisingly, excellent. He has played iconic and boisterous characters, and here he is given range to play the many faces of William Lee. The lover, the thinker, the junkie – he manages to embody the multifaceted persona of his ailing character.

A vision of Lee shows that compulsory heterosexuality is what ails him, and society. He may be open, but social pressure prevents him from always expressing himself fully. There’s a first-person scene in which Lee speaks to a disfigured woman, where he shows how his interest in women is not himself. Not being queer, for him, is a disembodying experience. This piece is repeated and reframed, a theme of Burroughs’ work, in one of the film’s best scenes as the two men trip on yage.

The surreal moments are sparse, enough to give the connection to Burroughs’ work and make this romance movie something beyond the extraordinary. From long takes with music to establish mood and headspace to intertwining bodies melding together, these moments of expression are both visually stunning and emotionally evocative. There’s much that can be read into the ideas and the images through the lens of Burroughs or otherwise, but they’re vital to giving the film its individual character.

There are moments where the effects feel somewhat lacking. When Lee and Allerton first arrive to a doctor’s jungle home, there’s a bright yellow viper with some passable effects. The whole scene feels like something out of a live-action Disney movie, and only very briefly breaks the excellent experience. A lot of the film’s silliness comes in the more grounded awkwardness of a new relationship, or Jason Schwartzman’s performance and storytelling. David Cronenberg’s Naked Lunch (1991) does make great use of practical effects to create a Burroughs story, and something is surely necessary, but it would’ve been preferable to avoid seeing anything like the viper in this case.

This is Luca Guadagnino’s second 2024 film release. It is, therefore, difficult not to think in terms of comparisons and expectations. If you can avoid that, then Queer is an amazing film. If you cannot, then it certainly lacks some of the charisma of Challengers or Call Me By Your Name. Surpassing or mimicking or mirroring those films isn’t the goal, however; the most important aspect of this film is a queer filmmaker creating an unabashedly, unflinchingly queer film. Guadagnino’s presence in the industry is a positive as movies continue to platform unique, diverse voices that make interesting films outside of culturally dominant experiences. This story, this film, can and will help someone who is struggling with their identity in an ever-regressive first world.

Score: 20/24

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