Queer by Guadagnino, the review of the film with Daniel Craig

There is the adolescent crush so vividly rendered in Call me by your name Of Luca Guadagninoand then there is the ruinous sexual and romantic obsession represented in his new film, Queerpreviewed at the Venice Film Festival. Adaptation of the novel by William S. Burroughs, Queer It’s a strange and despondent look at a man who is consumed by the wish. He also talks about other things: the subtle and obvious predations of expatriate life, the search for a transcendent experienceeven if it all seems to come back to one man’s fixation on another man, a mad and only partially satisfied hunger.

Daniel Craig interprets Leea flâneur perpetually drunk Burroughsian who lives in Mexico City in the early 1950s. He spends his time partying in bars, engaging in sarcastic conversation with American drinking buddies or looking for sex. He is disgusted by his own inclinations, though he does not limit them. Lee is also, we learn later, in the grip of an addiction to heroinwhich he treats with resigned nonchalance. Craigcapable of extreme ease when interpreting James Bond or Benoit Blanc, he lets himself go to sweatto the disorderto a disaster which makes him stagger in a dirty linen suit.

Lee is a stark contrast to a newcomer on the scene, Gene (the remarkable Drew Starkey), younghandsome and neat. The latter immediately catches the eye of the men who orbit this small neighborhood, but especially Lee. How could he not be attracted to a creature like this? A cream and bronze vision, with a sly awareness that seems to dance lightly on her beautiful face. Her confidence is painfully intriguing, as is the way she passes quickly changing moods when in Lee’s presence.

Their dynamics is accurately portrayed in the film, familiar to anyone who has contradictorily sought both affection and rejection from a mercurial person who alternates whims and attentions. Lee and Gene do date, on several occasions, but Lee always frames it as a favor Gene does him, or as part of a mutually beneficial exchange in which true care has no place. Yet Lee continues to seek Gene out in every way; it is part of the destruction he sees as inevitable for his condition.

All this might make it seem like Queer as a dark and punitive drama. But this is not the kind of film that Guadagnino makes. Queer it is instead nonconformist, abstract, irregular in mood and pace, as befits an adaptation of Burroughs’ work. It can be a bad and shocking movieeven if part of our revulsion comes from the horror of self-recognition. To liven up the atmosphere, Guadagnino proposes some sex scenes which, if stripped of context, perhaps qualify as sexy. Use anachronistic songs – there are two Nirvana covers, for example – as soundtrack to the scenes, alongside the pulsating and mechanical original compositions of Trent Reznor And Atticus RossThe film is a riot of style And techniqueincreasingly surreal as Lee chases Gene and a confirmation that will never come.

Lee takes Gene on a mission to South America, where he intends to search for a plant that, he says, the locals believe can aid human telepathy. It is called yage, today more commonly known as ayahuascaand Lee hopes it can open up a space for understanding the world, himself, Gene. In a way, Queer It could be rated as a film about a man who travels deep into the jungle to find out whether a boy he likes is really gay or not.

Of course the film is much more, clearly and inscrutably. Guadagnino is perhaps more focused on reproducing Burroughs’ mood and cadence, the enigma of cynicism and magical thinking that coexist. I think he succeeded, although the final judgment belongs to the viewers who are most familiar with Burroughs. Fans of the gay literature of the Beat erawith his grit, his dream and his self-loathing, will get great satisfaction from the film. Those who do not like these particular tones will have a harder time. Queer it’s the most opaque and alienating Guadagnino; even Suspiria it’s more inviting.

Yet, there are captivating sequences and games, erotic or painful, or both. The way the music and the moment collide and complement each other is captivating. Guadagnino uses the lot of the studios of Cinecittà in Rome to create a fancifully diorama-like Mexico City, all elegantly shabby hotels and brightly lit night bars. As the film gets stranger and stranger, Guadagnino frees it from time and space. The climactic scene of theayahuasca it’s a kind of modern dancewith two men illuminated by fire who merge and separate.

At the heart of the film is something immeasurably sad and with which a is possible dark identificationto which I would have liked Gaudagnino to shed more light. But this would perhaps have betrayed Burroughs’ intentions and, I suppose, also those of Guadagnino. Queer It is designed to be pungent, shy, enigmatic. To expect more might be to fall into Lee’s same trap, trying to grab something that can never be ours.