‘Queer’ Review: Daniel Craig Boozes and Cruises in Luca Guadagnino’s Transportive Lust Story

Venice Film Festival: The James Bond actor perfects the art of longing in the “Call Me by Your Name” filmmaker’s William S. Burroughs adaptation

queer-daniel-craig
Daniel Craig in "Queer" (A24)

Close your eyes at any point during “Queer” and you might still smell the sweat and booze and stale tobacco wafting off-screen. If not quite as seductive as the Northern Italian summer of “Call Me by Your Name,” the world director Luca Guadagnino evokes here is no less transporting, sweeping us into the tequila dives and roach motels of mid-century Mexico City for a prolonged bout of same-sex yearning. And though adapted from the book (and life) of William S. Burroughs, this carnal film builds just as much on the filmmaker’s ongoing interest in unmet desire, finding greater ecstasy in the wait than in the act.

Comments