Review Roundup: 'Queer' Impresses Critics

One of the most anticipated films at the recent Venice Film Festival was "Queer," Luca Guadagnino's screen adaptation of William Burroughs' uncompleted novel, written in the early 1950s, but not published until 1985. One major reason was to see Daniel Craig as a boozy, American ex-patriate living in a very queer Mexico City in the early 1950s where he becomes obsessed with an American tourist, played by Drew Starkey. Another was the explicitness of the sex scenes, which were considered a far cry from the tame ones in "Call Me By Your Name."

When it arrived at Venice, it did not have a distributor, which was unusual for a film from a major director and star and a high price tag ($48M) for an independent. But within days, A24 picked it up and the film was picked to for a prime screening at the New York Film Festival prior to an opening later in the fall.

Here are comments from the first set of reviews following its Venice screening:

Daily Beast, Nick Schager
Read full review at this link

"Hallucinatory and grimy, the 'Call Me by Your Name' and 'Challengers' director's latest is a romance set inside an addiction nightmare, and at its core is Daniel Craig, delivering a fearsomely raw, vulnerable turn as a man who's lost and alone, split into pieces, and gripped by a hunger he can't control. The film may be as fragmented as its protagonist and, ultimately, unable to reconcile its disparate facets, but its headliner's portrait of desire, degradation, and delirium is a sight to behold–and the performance of his career. . . .

"Split into three chapters and an epilogue, Queer boasts a bit of Beat spirit, and its concluding moments daringly strive (with some success) to evoke Lee's guilt, regret, and sadness by channeling Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey.'

"Still, Guadagnino remains a director who–no matter his frequent interest in horror–is most comfortable when exploring the ins and outs of romantic need and yearning, and the further he strays from that subject, the wobblier and more mannered his work becomes. In this case, at least, he has Craig to save the day, burrowing so deeply into Lee's inner chaos that he singlehandedly keeps the film on its desolate track."

Rolling Stone, David Fear
Read full review at this link. (Note – link behind a firewall).

"Written in the early 1950s, published in 1985, and poised to become a belated part of the Beat Generation canon any day now, William S. Burroughs' Queer has always been the runt of his literary litter. It had been designed to be somewhat of an extension-slash-sequel to Junkie, his first novel, but ended up being shunted aside and shelved. . . .

"Whether or not Luca Guadagnino's screen adaptation will change the book's standing remains to be seen – but this sordid, steamy, and exceedingly swooning take on Burroughs' novel will certainly move you to appreciate how he makes the author's amour fou tale his own. And it will definitely alter your view of Daniel Craig. The British movie star had already been in the process of shaking off his association with a certain career-defining role, in addition to jogging your memory in regards to his range beyond Bond – his dandy sleuth in the 'Knives Out' movies is worlds away from the antihero employed in her majesty's secret service. Embodying Burroughs' alter ego and cycling through Lee's lust, jealousy, world-weariness, neediness, and bliss, Craig cracks this smitten, doomed romantic wide open. It's the role of a lifetime if you hold nothing back. So he doesn't. . . .

"What's shocking is the vulnerability that the actor shows you as he gets pulled into a relationship destined to destroy him as if guided by a tractor beam. . . .

"No stranger to fiery love affairs, fraught dynamics or formal gambits, Guadagnino sets the movie's torrid first half in a fantasy Mexico City one phallic statue away from going full 'Querelle.' . . .

"'Queer' demands you meet Burroughs' deadpan outrageousness on its own level, as well as leaving room for the more experimental cinematic interpretations of his prose that come from Guadagnino's imagination and touchstones; an epilogue suggests the Star Child ending of '2001' if directed by David Lynch. It truly is a solid match of moviemaker and source material. Yet none of this would work as well as it does without Craig."

The Telegraph. Robbie Collin
5 Stars out of 5. Read full review at this link.

"'Queer,' which premiered at Venice to an even mix of boos and cheers, is the new film from Luca Guadagnino, and the busy Italian director's most pristine and plangent work yet. It's an adaptation (scripted by his 'Challengers' writer Justin Kuritzkes) of an early, unfinished, autobiographical novel by William S Burroughs.

"But while the book arguably reads today as blunt and gauche, Guadagnino's take on the material is soul-swellingly lush and allusive. It's made in an unapologetically romantic mode – by night, Craig is spotlit by street lamps like a noir private eye, while Mexico City itself looks dreamily unreal, like a sumptuous Vincente Minnelli set on the MGM backlot.

"It's also notably explicit, with three sexual encounters that are about as graphic as modern male movie stardom allows. . . .

'Craig is sensational in a role swimming in psychological complexity, which he marshals with rare intuition and grace. . . .

"'Queer' doesn't scrimp on provocation and pleasure, but it's also a beautiful film about male loneliness, and the way a solitary life can so easily shade into a life sentence."

Time Magazine. Stephanie Zacharek
Read full review at this link.

"The shape of desire is everywhere in Luca Guadagnino's shimmering, tender-as-a-bruise 'Queer,' playing in competition at the Venice Film Festival. Guadagnino and co-writer Justin Kuritzkes have adapted the screenplay from William Burroughs' autobiographical novel of the same name, written in 1952 but not published until 1985. Daniel Craig is Burroughs' stand-in here... and his complex, mercurial performance is the key to the movie. Sometimes you want to shake him–but damned if he doesn't also draw out a multitude of undefinable feelings, including grudging protectiveness. . . .

"Guadagnino seems to be having fun with this special-effects magic. And although his last film, the love-triangle escapade 'Challengers,' was widely deemed 'sexy,";it wasn't particularly sensual. Queer is different; its nerve endings are alive. That's largely thanks to Craig, who offers himself up as an unequivocal sex object. The film was shot by Guadagnino's regular collaborator Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, who makes the fantasy sequences feel vital and real and the more realistic elements feel vaguely dreamy. And Mukdeeprom knows how to capture Craig's particular brand of earthy, frowning beauty. Even the stubble on his chin looks faintly luminous, like frost on a blade of grass.

"Though Guadagnino is a gifted director, his style is sometimes showily baroque to a fault. (Exhibit A: 'Suspiria.') But 'Queer,' stylish as it is, may be his most heartfelt movie, at least since 'Call Me By Your Name.'"