16/25
William Lee: Sit on your butt!
Chronology
In 1950s Mexico City, a forty-something American immigrant lives a solitary life in a small American community. However, the arrival of a young student inspires the man to finally make a meaningful connection with someone. It was ultimately Daniel Craig who convinced Luca Guadagnino to cast Drew Starkey after watching audition tapes with Guadagnino and telling him, “This is a movie.” he’s the guy” after watching Starkey’s… Or what’s left of it after four years in the Navy.
Mexico, William Lee, an American writer on the wrong side of
Featured on The Graham Norton Show: Daniel Craig/Nicola Coughlan/Jesse Eisenberg/Kieran Culkin/Flo (2024). I’ve never seen “Naked Lunch” (1991), but I thought about it a lot when I saw “Queer” at the London Film Festival in 2024: probably fitting, since William S Burroughs provided the source material for both films. forty? Fifty?
But what does Eugene himself want?
He spends his days getting drunk, doing drugs and having casual sex with other men. One day, the muscular, intelligent young man, Eugene, walks into the bar and Lee is seduced. Plus, there’s that telepathic drug to think about… I I’m not sure what, stylistically, director Luca Guadagnino is trying to achieve with this film.
But if that’s the case, why the decidedly un-1950s rock and techno soundtrack?
The sets are done almost exclusively in bright colors – dull reds and olive greens, for example – and have this vaguely unrealistic, stripped-down Technicolor look that made me think the intention was to pay homage to the films of the era in which the film is set. Daniel Craig (is it my imagination or is he starting to sound like Sid James?) is crippled in the lead role, constantly having to deliver nonsense in an accent that’s clearly not his own. Drew Starkey is able to give a more subtle performance as the manipulative Eugene, and certainly looks on the preppy side. Lesley Manville is unrecognizable as a doctor living in the South American jungle – kudos to the makeup team!
It was nice to see it once, but I won’t watch it again
This is the kind of movie that seems to me to be more about arty style than narrative substance.