“I want to talk to you without speaking.” Few working directors can communicate the complex feelings of longing, desire, and devastation with as much texture as Luca Guadagnino. Queer, an adaptation of William S. Burroughs’s controversial autobiographical novella of the same name, follows William Lee (Daniel Craig), a heroin addict and American expat in 1950s Mexico City who becomes enamored to the point of obsession with a younger man (a captivating Drew Starkey). Craig is impossible to look away from; his bouts of desperation and all-consuming yearning command your attention at every turn in a way that feels both highly manicured yet totally disheveled. Buoyed by a phenomenal score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross and incisively adapted by Justin Kuritzkes, Queer lingers on many small moments—gentle touches, longing gazes, unspoken confessions—that build up into a darkly psychedelic form of wish fulfillment in the hopes of finding answers to larger-than-life questions. Queer is a victory lap for Guadagnino’s career stint in adaptations and reimaginings (2017’s Call Me By Your Name, 2022’s Bones and All, 2018’s Suspiria), particularly due to his deep fascination with the source material and his curiosity to find an ending of his own making. R, 137 min.
Wide release in theaters
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