Queer

Luca Guadagnino's second film of the year has Daniel Craig deliver his best work

Luca Guadagnino has become fascinated with romances of confused lovers. It’s been a common thread from A Bigger Splash (2015) through Call Me By Your Name (2017), To the Bone (2022), Challengers (2024) and now Queer (2024).

Queer is adapted from the semi-autobiographical novel by William S. Burroughs of the same name. We follow Burroughs’ stand-in Lee (Daniel Craig) a writer living amongst fellow expat American gays in 1950s Mexico City. Facing rejections for his advances or unsatisfying flings, Lee suddenly becomes enraptured with the silent and ambiguous Eugene (Drew Starkey).

Queer is the second film by Guadagnino to be released this year, after the strike-delayed Challengers. The toxic and confused lovers is a feature carried on from the tennis drama, however, taking advantage of his Latin American setting, the Italian director infuses a magical realist aesthetic in Queer. This is done to brilliant effect with Lee literally fading away when he feels excluded, or when he visualizes his desires with Eugene in public with translucent superimposed gestures playing ontop of the “normal” scene. Queer especially leans into visual poetics in a third act psychedelic trip, climaxing with a character falling gently from space, before careening down to earth and landing on his feet on a beach.

Queer is broken into three distinct acts. However, each of these acts is incongruous to one another, so that they feel less of a same story and more like an anthology of short films. This dilutes the excellent first act where our characters explore longing, self-hatred, and a thirst for connection. The next acts disrupt these character journeys, veering into different subject and narrative tone. While the first act feels like a woozy stream of consciousness, the second and third have a more clearcut plot, clashing and confusing perceptions of who these characters are. The lack of a character and story flow with the structure means that the central romance and its exploration as a toxic mirror of the self is disjointed as a result. And as such, the finale, which is set up to be gut-wrenching leaves viewers feeling cold.

As with any of Guadagnino’s films, he extracts incredible non-verbal performances from his actors. Craig culminates his transition from his macho James Bond legacy, doing so with his best performance to date. The British actor is astounding in his subtle gestures and a capacity to show confidence with insecurity, love with hatred, and nostalgia with hope with the simple blink of an eye. Starkey is likewise a worthy scene partner, embodying a character that is essentially an elegant empty shell, and yet whose sparks of compassion are key to fueling Lee’s addiction.

In the end, Queer is another luscious looking if structurally imperfect film from Guadagnino, much as Challengers was earlier this year. However, like the tennis drama, Queer features intriguing segments alongside one of the year’s best performances.

6.7/10