46/43
In 1950s Mexico City, a 40-something American immigrant lives a solitary life in a small American community. However, the arrival of a young student pushes the man to finally form a meaningful relationship with someone. Daniel Craig is ultimately the one who convinces Luca Guadagnino to hire Drew Starkey after watching audition tapes with Guadagnino and telling him “That.” is a guy” after seeing Starkey… William Lee: Get Up! Or What’s Left of It After Four Years in the Navy. Featured on The Graham Norton Show: Daniel Craig/Nicola Coughlan/Jesse Eisenberg/Kieran Culkin/Flo (2024). I’ve never watched Naked Lunch (1991), but I found myself thinking about it often during a screening of Queer at the 2024 London Film Festival: probably to be expected, since William S Burroughs provided the source material for both films. In 1950s Mexico, William Lee, an American writer on the wrong side of the… 40s? Fifties? He spends his days getting drunk, shooting up, and having casual sex with other men. One day, a muscular, intelligent young man named Eugene walks into the bar, and Lee is delighted. But what does Eugene himself want? And then there’s that telepathic drug to think about… I’m not sure what, stylistically, director Luca Guadagnino is trying to accomplish with this film. The sets are decorated almost exclusively in solid colors—drab reds and olive greens, for example—and have this vaguely unrealistic, clean Technicolor look that made me think the intention was to pay homage to the films of the era in which the film is set. But if that’s the case, why a definitive rock and techno soundtrack that isn’t from the 1950s? Daniel Craig (is it my imagination, or is he starting to sound like Sid James?) is awkward in the lead role, constantly having to recite nonsense in an accent that’s clearly not his own. Drew Starkey can give a more subtle performance as the manipulative Eugene, and he certainly looks dapper. Lesley Manville is unrecognizable as a doctor living in the South American jungle—kudos to the makeup team! This is the kind of film that strikes me as more about art style than narrative content. It was nice to see it once, but I won’t watch it again.
