Daniel Craig is an actor I’ve been a fan of since I saw him in Layer Cake. When he got the role of James Bond I thought it was a no-brainer even though most didn’t know who he was. Lately, he’s been playing Beniot Blank, the Kentucky Fried Detective, in Ryan Johnson’s Knives Out Trilogy, for lack of a better name. Now he’s in the latest Luca Guadrinio film Queer. This is a character that is way out of the box for Craig, but you can see he was enjoying every minute he had playing this character. I liked him in it as well.

William Lee (Daniel Craig) author and philanderer passes his time in Mexico drinking like a fish and smoking like a chimney. All the while looking for the next young thing he can bed. While drinking at a local watering hole, the Ship Ahoy, he notices a young man he likes. Eugene Alerton (Drew Starkey) and he locks eyes, but he plays hard to get. Eventually, Lee’s advances are too much to ignore and they get together. After this, they become close friends and even go on an existential journey to South America exploring all kinds of things.

Besides Craig and Starkey there is a decent supporting cast in this movie. Jason Schwartzman plays Joe Guidry, a drinking buddy and confidant of Lee’s. He is almost unrecognizable as this overweight guy, but he’s having fun in the role. The heat of Mexico is very evident in him and everyone else in the cast. The other performance that is played by Lesley Manville who is unrecognizable is Dr. Cotter. She’s deep in the jungles of Ecuador studying various hallucinogenic plants and so forth. This is where the film gets crazy, to say the least, but I liked it. These made the movie enjoyable for me besides Craig’s performance. Guadagnino assembled a very good cast in this film.

Luca Guadagrinio has had a few divisive films in his filmography. Not all of them have been accepted as well as Challengers have been. That though is his most accessible film to date. Queer starts as a very accessible period piece and turns into something I feel most people wouldn’t want to watch despite the performances. The themes, of sex, drugs, and alcohol, are mostly things people can relate to. It’s the way they are presented that is the problem of this story based on the book by William S Burroughs and the film it’s adapted from. Guadagnino gives it his best try though.

One thing I liked about this period piece is the cinematography by Sayombhu Mukdeeprom. The movie has a gorgeous color palette of pinks, blues, and browns. The setting of Mexico lends itself to the beautiful cinematography quite nicely. Hotel rooms, bars, and restaurants are all vividly brought to life. I was genuinely awestruck by the look of the movie in the first Chapter, How Do You Like Mexico? which takes place in the 1950’s. Guadagnino’s films always have an interesting look to them and this one is no different. 

The three chapters this movie has, How Do You Like Mexico?, Traveling Companions, & The Botanist in the Jungle completely describe the three segments of the story perfectly. As the movie progresses the story gets progressively crazier. The aforementioned sex, drugs, and alcohol play a huge part in that. Craig leans into the craziness quite well. It was pretty interesting to see him play this character with all of these proclivities. Besides the cinematography, he and the other cast members are the reason to see this film. I’m glad that Guadagrinio is staying in his wheelhouse as a director though. Queer isn’t his best movie, but it had some redeeming qualities.

3 star

Dan Skip Allen