Queer

Synopsis

Brilliant, audacious author, meet brilliant, audacious director: it’s risky to translate William S. Burroughs for the screen, but Luca Guadagnino’s (Call Me by Your Name, I+N30, 2017) spin on the Beat legend’s autobiographical novel matches its source material in vulnerability and taboo-smashing adventurousness. Queer is a hallucinogenic odyssey bathed in desire. Lee (Daniel Craig) mingles with the expatriate set in postwar Mexico City, wandering its streets, frequenting its gay bars, and ingesting whatever illicit substances are available. A consummate raconteur who has no trouble finding an audience, he’s also a desperately lonely, middle-aged addict with an alarming fondness for guns. Early in Queer, Lee sets his sights on traveling to the Amazon in search of the potentially telepathic ayahuasca—and he wants handsome, young, bi-curious Allerton (Drew Starkey) to accompany him. Their travels: a string of unexpected encounters, providing Lee with sobering lessons in what Burroughs dubbed “the algebra of need.” Queer is faithful to the book and a radical re-imagining. Period detail offset by anachronistic musical choices and an eerie epilogue allude to the real-life tragedy that prompted Burroughs’ writing career. Through it all, Craig makes Lee his own, creating a fully lived-in protagonist whose unruly obsessions lead to something akin to enlightenment.

Trailer