3/5 stars
American author William Burroughs’ lurid, experimental novels are notoriously difficult to adapt and not exactly conducive to great cinema. David Cronenberg managed it with 1991’s Naked Lunch. Now, Luca Guadagnino takes on Queer, which was written in the early 1950s but was not published until 1985.
Premiering in competition at the Venice Film Festival, Queer is a faithful, authentic dive into Burroughs’ universe, albeit one that struggles to maintain interest over a protracted 135-minute runtime.
Daniel Craig successfully demolishes his James Bond image as William Lee, a middle-aged homosexual drug addict living in Mexico City, drinking himself into oblivion. That is before he starts injecting drugs and going in search of yage, the plant better known now as ayahuasca, which he believes has telepathic properties.
Early on, Lee has an air of bonhomie about him as he seeks out casual sex with men, but his slide towards addiction becomes Guadagnino’s focus.