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Queer Movie Review

Queer is a 2024 historical romantic drama film directed by Luca Guadagnino and starring Daniel Craig and Drew Starkey. This is a very odd, but interesting experiment.

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“I’m disembodied“

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Set in 1950s Mexico City, the film follows an outcast American expatriate who becomes infatuated with a much younger man. This movie was based on the titular novella by William S. Burroughs. It was clearly an autobiographical story and this movie is seemingly a faithful, though prolonged adaptation of it. Luca Guadagnino had a strong year in 2024 with two movies released, and although I much preferred ‘Challengers’, I still respected the wild swings that he took with Queer.

You can analyze this movie if you separate it into two clearly distinct halves. The first half is a much more straightforward period piece that is all about longing, loneliness and ageing. It sets up the central relationship and the protagonist in all of his cringe-worthy and pathetic behavior. This is where the movie was most mainstream and most engaging.

The second half is the messier, but more memorable of the two. Here, we are introduced to a drug-fueled quest for this weird drug in the middle of the jungle. Moving the action to Latin America was a strong choice as the film suddenly became alive and fresh. As somebody who finds any drug-related storyline frustratingly opaque not relatable at all, I found this section overlong and too meandering. But still, I appreciated the artistry on display, especially as it regards its cinematography.

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There is no denying that Queer was gorgeously shot. There are so many shots and takes that were very memorable here and I particularly appreciated those moments where the two moved their hands through and into each other’s bodies, literally connecting with each other through these drugs. Those moments made for a transcendent and very cinematic viewing experience. I would say that some of these sections are rather reminiscent to ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ in their use of timeless score and imagery. The movie wears its influences on its sleeve, but it hardly felt coherent and working on its own properly.

Daniel Craig clearly put a lot of effort into playing the role of William Lee, who is clearly a fictionalized version of Burroughs himself. I would counter that he was hugely miscast as this pathetic older man chasing a younger guy so desperately and doing drugs all the time. He should have been somebody who is more convincing as a gay man, but has a smaller and less muscular stature. Still, Craig delivered possibly his finest performance yet in this movie as he was very committed, very physical and at times commanding the screen so much that the other actors felt insignificant as a result. Drew Starkey faded into the background and his character wasn’t fully developed while others are all fleeting presences in what is clearly a character study of its main hero primarily.

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Queer is visually dazzling. Guadagnino movies are always brightly lit, which I find highly refreshing in this dark and gloomy era for cinema. I loved the look of Mexico City streets, though I found the abundance of gay bars depicted quite unrealistic. The score was good when it’s ambient, but it was terrible when focusing on these overly modern songs for what was supposed to be a period piece. The performances are stellar and the movie has a very strong mood and atmosphere to it that is pensive, meditative and strange, but it failed to connect its narrative threads as its main themes were repeated throughout without making a proper emotional punch. The ending was also a bit too messy for my taste and the chemistry between the two leads was sorely missing. The theme of classism was sadly missing from this movie, though there was clearly a lot of room there to explore those issues.