Film: “Queer” starring Daniel Craig

“Queer” is not the sort of movie you bring home to mother for the holidays. It’s risky, weird, and is entirely lacking in Hallmark moments. But Luca Guadagnino (“Bigger Splash”) directed it, Justin Kerikes (“Challengers”) wrote the screenplay and for me and fellow Luca fans, that’s good enough.

The movie, based on the 1985 semi-autobiographical novel by William S. Burroughs, tells the tale of Bill Lee (Daniel Craig), an independently wealthy American who left the US during the 1950s and lived a dissolute life in Mexico City, getting high on heroin and tequila, and cruising the local bars for one-night stands with men.

One enchanted evening, he espies young Eugene (Drew Starkey) while watching a cockfight in the town square. Gene is a buff young ex-serviceman, and Bill looks at him like Aschenbach looked at Tadzio in “Death in Venice.” Bill decides he must have him, although he isn’t sure Gene wants him back. After a carefully planned seduction that lasts for weeks, Bill at last gets lucky.

Afterwards, Gene isn’t sure about what happens next. “I’m not queer,” he insists. However, he doesn’t mind the fact that Bill picks up the tab for everything. At the same time, Bill is obsessed with finding a drug that he heard is supposed to grant its user powers of telepathy. The drug is derived from the ayaheusca plant, found only in the jungles of Ecuador.

This prompts a trip to South America, where the two men hack their way through the jungle to meet an ayahuasca expert, Dr. Cotter (Lesley Manville, in an Oscar-worthy role). The film takes some macabre turns and ends in a bittersweet finale that may put you in mind of “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

There is much to admire in this film: the cinematography by Sayombhu Mukdeeprom is stunning as is the score by Trent Reznor. The scenes when the men take the telepathy drug are surreal and appropriately psychedelic. One critic summed it up best when she wrote that “the stylistic choices Guadagnino makes throughout ‘Queer’ are invariably more engaging than the central story itself.” I don’t disagree.

The sex scenes are explicit, but transactional and strangely unerotic. (To put it in James Bond-ian terms, I was neither shaken nor stirred.) What was more impressive were Craig’s acting chops: he has seamlessly departed from cartoon-like 007 shtick into lovesick puppy mode. I also liked Starkey who plays the part of the indifferent stud to a tee.

Note: Burroughs wrote “Queer” in 1951 while wasn’t published in 1985. The story itself is inspired by Burrough’s relationship with Adelbert Lewis Marker, who had been recently discharged from the Navy and was kicking around Mexico City when they met.

In interviews, Burrough has insisted he was never “gay for a day in his life.” If you believe that one, I have this bridge I’d like to sell you. But meanwhile, I’ve got this movie I think you should see.

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