Venice 2024: Luca Guadagnino’s ‘Queer’ is a Meandering Fever Dream
by Alex Billington
September 3, 2024
Earlier in the year, when it was discovered that 2024 would be the year of not one but two brand new films made by the talented Luca Guadagnino, I made a prediction that Queer would be the real knock out next to the more forgettable Challengers. Now that I’ve seen both of the films it’s time to admit – my prediction was wrong. It turns out its the other way around and Challengers is the winner. Luca Guadagnino’s Queer is premiering at the 2024 Venice Film Festival in the Main Competition, the same festival where most of the Italian filmmaker’s previous films Suspiria, Bones and All, I Am Love, A Bigger Splash, as well as his doc Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams premiered. He’s back in Venice again with what has been described as his most personal work yet, an adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ very queer novel of the same name – which was originally written in the 1950s but never published until later in 1985. It turns out this adaptation is Guadagnino’s Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas – a sweaty, erotic fever dream that doesn’t quite work as a film.
As a quick preface, Call Me By Your Name is an all-time favorite, Suspiria is an extraordinary remake, and I am a fan of pretty much every other Guadagnino film he’s made so far. That said, Queer might be his worst yet, though with time I might prefer it more than Bones and All at least for where it goes in the second half. The script for Queer is written by Luca Guadagnino’s new collaborator Justin Kuritzkes, who also wrote the Challengers script for him. It borrows from Burroughs’ book but still feels like its an expression of an artist going through the same thing. Daniel Craig stars as the very queer American William Lee, who is living in the 1940s down in Mexico City frequenting gay bars and traversing the streets looking for any man he might have an interest in. His eyes fall upon the unforgettably sexy Eugene Allerton, played by Drew Starkey, a younger man who seems to brush off his affections at first until they finally hookup. Most of the first half of the film is about Lee’s hookups, inbetween getting drunk, doing drugs and strolling around this Mexico City set – which looks extremely fake and feels like a backlot no matter how nicely they dress it up to be accurate.
Unfortunately this first half is far from the romantic majesty of Call Me By Your Name, mostly because Lee is somewhat off-putting. He’s not that interesting nor does he have much to say, all he wants is to discuss is if there are any new boys in town and if they’re queer or not. It meanders for far too long, and doesn’t offer up the usual intrigue that most of Guadagnino’s films often provide. Perhaps because they were sticking too close to the book, or perhaps just because Lee isn’t that cool of a character to begin with. The whole film is a sweaty, cumbersome experience. It’s clearly a very cathartic story for anyone who’s also lost in drugs & sex and thinks they can dig deeper by taking even more mind-expanding drugs. Alas I was bored by too much of it. Eventually this mindlessly horny junkie, who seems endlessly lost in his own infatuation, decides to take a trip with Allerton – they escape from Mexico City flying around to other cities until they eventually end up in the jungle in search of ayahuasca. In the 40s & 50s when the book was written this was not a well known drug, but nowadays it’s a hipster trend and everyone has heard of the stories about this hallucinogenic brew.
The second half is where the film really comes together and finds some meaning. The entire jungle sequence and ayahuasca experience are mesmerizing and beautiful, especially with Lesley Manville appearing as a mad botanist woman living out there who prepares the brew for them. Ultimately Lee does learn something, and while his desire for telepathy doesn’t exactly manifest the way he wants, it does give him a glimpse into another realm of understanding. Whether or not he learned enough from this experience, it’s hard to tell, as everything in the final act seems so trippy and surreal it’s a challenge to understand what lessons he actually learns from tripping on jungle vines. There is an impressive assortment of modern songs in Queer, ranging from Nirvana to Prince, along with a more classical yet still emotional score by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross. The film is occasionally beautiful but feels so fake so often, shot mostly on sets built at the Cinecittà Studio in Rome, that it’s hard to get lost in it the way I do with so many other Guadagnino films. Which is a shame because as committed as Craig is in his role, the film just doesn’t live up to him or the potential of the story.
Alex’s Venice 2024 Rating: 5 out of 10
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