29/22
In 1950s Mexico City, an American immigrant in his late forties lives a lonely life in a small American community. However, the arrival of a young student prompts the man to finally establish a meaningful relationship with someone. It was Daniel Craig who ultimately convinced Luca Guadagnino to cast Drew Starkey after watching audition tapes with Guadagnino and telling him “This is the guy” after seeing Starkey’s.. William Lee: Sit on your ass! Or what’s left of him after four years in the Navy… 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 often thought about it during the screening of “Queer” at the 2024 London Film Festival: probably to be expected, since William S. Burroughs provided the source material for both films. In 1950s Mexico, William Lee, an American writer on the wrong side of… forty? fifty? Spends his days drinking, shooting, and having casual sex with other men. One day, a muscular, smart young man named Eugene walks into the bar, and Lee is smitten. But what does Eugene himself want? Plus, there’s that telepathic drug to think about… I’m not sure what stylistically director Luca Guadagnino is trying to achieve with this film. The sets are decorated almost exclusively in block colours – dull reds and olive greens, for example – and have that 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. But if that’s the case, why the rock and techno soundtrack that’s definitely not from the 1950s? Daniel Craig (is it my imagination or is he starting to sound like Sid James?) is hamstrung in the lead role, constantly having to declaim nonsensical speeches in an accent that clearly wasn’t his. Drew Starkey is able to give a more subtle performance as the manipulative Eugene and certainly looks the part. Leslie Manville is unrecognizable as a doctor living in the South American jungle – kudos to the makeup team! This is the kind of film that seems to me to be more about artistic style than storytelling substance. It was good to see it once, but I won’t watch it again.