33/30
In 1950s Mexico City, a forty-year-old American immigrant lives a lonely life surrounded by a small American community. But the arrival of a young student forces the man to finally have a meaningful connection with someone. Daniel Craig eventually cast Luca Guadagnino as Drew Starkey after watching audition tapes with Guadagnino and telling him “That’s a friend” when he saw Starkey… William Lee: Sit on Your Ass! Or What’s Left After Four Years in the Navy. The Graham Norton Show: Daniel Craig / Nicola Coughlan / Jesse Eisenberg / Kieran Culkin / Flo (2024). I’ve never seen Naked Lunch (1991), but I thought about it often during the 2024 London Film Festival screening of Queer: I guess that was to be expected, since William S. Burroughs provided the source material in the 1950s. Mexico, William Lee, an American writer in the wrong… forties? Fifties? He spends his days drinking, shooting, and having casual sex with other men. One day, a muscular, intelligent young man named Eugene walks into a bar and Lee is shocked. But what does Eugene want? Then there’s that telepathic drug that’s worth thinking about… I’m not sure what director Luca Guadagnino is going for stylistically with this film. The sets are decorated almost entirely in block colors – muted reds and olive greens, for example – and have that unreal, pure Technicolor look that makes me think they’re paying homage to the films of the era in which the film is set. But if so, why is Daniel Craig (is it my imagination, or is he starting to sound like Sid James?) stuck in the lead role, having to spout nonsense all the time? with an accent that is clearly not his own. Drew Starkey, as the manipulative Eugene, could have given a more subtle performance and certainly looks ready. Lesley Manville is unrecognizable as a doctor living in the South American jungle – great job by the makeup team! This is the kind of movie that I find more about the art style than the story. It was good to see once, but I won’t watch it again.