Queer (18)

American ex-pat William Lee tolerates the persistent swelter of Mexico City to enjoy anonymous hook-ups with men in seedy hotels. A handsome new arrival, Eugene Allerton, catches William's eye in swooning slow-motion across a crowded cockfight in the street. The local gay coterie is amused by William's awkward pursuit of the younger man but the writer has the last snigger when he strikes a mutually beneficial deal with Eugene: "Be nice to me... twice a week."

LondonNet Film Review

Queer (18) Film Review from LondonNet

Growing up, I remember the word queer was weaponised against me and members of the gay community as a pejorative until activists defiantly reclaimed it as a badge of honour to celebrate the full rainbow-coloured spectrum of otherness. Today, the term proudly embraces every facet of the LGBT+ community, and Beat Generation writer William S Burroughs chose it as the one word title of his autobiographical novella eventually published in 1985, charting the sweat-soaked odyssey of an American writer in 1950s Mexico…

Bookmarked into three chapters and an elegiac epilogue, director Luca Guadagnino’s erotically charged film is a thematic travelling companion to Call Me By Your Name and Challengers, exploring obsession and fractious power dynamics within a lop-sided relationship. Screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes, who served an ace with his script for Challengers, faces a sterner test navigating Burroughs’ text. A meandering second half, distinguished by a hallucinogenic journey into the jungle with Lesley Manville’s mad medic, loses momentum.

Anachronistic needle-drops – including a soaring lament of Sinead O’Connor – add to the sense of discombobulation. Powerhouse performances from Daniel Craig and Drew Starkey as a pitiful, affection-starved loner and the “cold, slippery, hard-to-catch” object of his infatuation send temperatures soaring in a steamy opening hour that leaves little to the imagination in artfully choreographed bedroom scenes.

American ex-pat William Lee (Craig) tolerates the persistent swelter of Mexico City to enjoy anonymous hook-ups with men in seedy hotels between swigs of alcohol to complement his heroin addiction. He is a withered husk, prone to bouts of self-loathing, who regularly holds court at the Ship Ahoy bar with drinking buddy Joe Guidry (Jason Schwartzman). A handsome new arrival, Eugene Allerton (Starkey), catches William’s eye in swooning slow-motion across a crowded cockfight in the street to the strains of Nirvana’s Come As You Are.

The local gay coterie led by acid-tongued John Dume (Drew Droege) is amused by William’s awkward pursuit of the younger man but the writer has the last snigger when he strikes a mutually beneficial deal with Eugene: “Be nice to me… twice a week.” The arrangement catalyses a passionate, all-consuming affair, at least through William’s rose-tinted spectacles.

Queer smears dirt and grime over the lush romanticism of Call Me By Your Name to traverse another tortuous love story across an age divide. Guadagnino fully embraces the material and almost gets lost in the jungle with his disoriented characters. Craig will leave audiences shaken and stirred with his unselfconscious, emotionally raw portrayal of a troubled soul, who feels battered and bruised by a world that labels him perverse for nurturing that most human desire: to connect in a meaningful way to another being. Through the lens of cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, we almost get there with him.

– Sarah Lee