Queer

Queer is the most devastating gay love story I’ve seen since All of Us Strangers.

Based on the book by William S. Burroughs, Daniel Craig, in a role that’s diametrically opposed to his long run as James Bond, plays a gay, junkie writer (much like Burroughs himself) named William Lee, who seems to spend all his time in Mexico City chasing hustlers, drinking and shooting heroin. Then me meets a young man named Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey), whose sexual orientation isn’t immediately apparent, and falls in love with him. The two then go on a journey to South America in search of ayahuasca, a drug that is supposed to aid in telepathy but seems to induce hallucinations. I don’t want to spoil the ending, but I’ll just say that you may be as heartbroken as you were at the end of Strangers.

I think director Luca Gaudagnino (Call Me by Your Name, A Bigger Splash) is the most interesting director working today. What I really love about this movie is the way it captures gay desire, with its camera lingering over Starkey’s body. It doesn’t shy away from gay sex (in fact, it’s quite erotic). Craig is still in great shape (despite the fact that he’s playing a junkie) and Starkey is also quite beautiful to look at.

Also featured in the film are Drew Droege (off-Broadway’s Bright Colors and Bold Patterns), as a stereotypical, effeminate lounge lizard and an unrecognizable Jason Schwartzman, who put on a ton of weight for his role as another bar fly.

While the movie is set in the 1950s, Guadagnino once again makes great use of music, including Nirvana and New Order.

There’s a hallucinogenic quality to Queer, as befits a movie about drug use, and you may find yourself saying “What the fuck just happened?” at times, but the pain of lost love will remain in the pit of your stomach long after you’ve left the theater.