43/35
In 1950s Mexico City, an American immigrant in his late forties lives a lonely life in the midst of a small American community. However, the arrival of a young student forces him to finally establish a meaningful relationship with someone. Ultimately, it was Daniel Craig who convinced Luca Guadagnino to cast Drew Starkey after watching an audition tape with Guadagnino and telling him "This is the guy" after seeing Starkey… William Lee: Sit on Your Ass! Or What’s Left of Him After Four Years in the Navy.. Starred in The Graham Norton Show: Daniel Craig/Nicola Coughlan/Jesse Eisenberg/Kieran Culkin/Flo (2024). I’ve never seen 'Naked Lunch' (1991), but I found myself thinking about it often at the screening of “Queer” at the 2024 London Film Festival: probably to be expected, as William S Burroughs provided the source material for both films. In 1950s Mexico, William Lee, an American writer on the wrong side of the… forty? Fifty? He spends his days getting drunk, shooting, and having casual sex with other men. One day, a muscular, smart young man named Eugene walks into the bar, and Lee is smitten. But what does Eugene want? Plus, there’s that telepathic drug to think about… I’m not sure what director Luca Guadagnino is trying to achieve stylistically with this film. The sets are decorated almost exclusively in block colors—like muted reds and olive greens—and there’s that vaguely unrealistic, stripped-down Technicolor look that makes me think the intention is to pay homage to the films of the era in which the film is set. But if that’s the case, then the decidedly non-1950s rock and techno music is clearly not his own accent. Drew Starkey could have given a more subtle performance as the manipulative Eugene, and he certainly looks prepared. Lesley Manville is unrecognizable as the doctor living in the South American jungle – good for the makeup team! This is the kind of film that I find to be more about artistic style than storytelling. It was nice to see once, but I won’t be watching it again.