Review of Queer, directed by Luca Guadagnino

If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m coming across in the world.

For three years I worked professionally as a film critic, and while going to all of the film festivals and interviewing directors and actors was cool for a while, but I wanted to reclaim my time and watch movies I wanted to watch. Sometimes watching all of the new releases is great, and behind ahead of the curve, but I feel like I was falling so behind on movies I was genuinely excited about.

I recently fell into a spell of unemployment probably during the worst time to be unemployed, as it was very hard to find a job. I was applying to hundreds of jobs, getting interviews, but no offer was manifesting for me in the near future. So during this time, I had a lot of free time, and spent a good chunk of it chipping away at the blog.

Because of the lack of money coming my way, I had to be picky about the kinds of subscriptions and services I was getting ahold of during this time, and I used my local library a lot. I am so incredibly privileged and blessed to be living in a city where we have a decent enough library system where I can get the books I want, when I want, and not have to worry about access to movies because of their DVD collection and how they have Kanopy.

This particular movie is one I wanted to see in theaters, but I was unemployed, lacking a car, and I no longer had A List through AMC (a domestic theater chain if you’re not from the US; they offer a subscription where you can see four movies a week) because of the previous reasons.

So I patiently waited until my local library had a DVD copy. And when my hold came in, you bet I watched this movie immediately. I was completely and utterly ready to watch it from the moment I got the email that it had arrived at my local branch along with my copy of The Wedding Banquet that came in.

Let’s get into the review!

The story of an older American expat and his younger lover who’s reluctant to accept his queerness.

If you’re familiar with Guadagnino’s other work, you’re going to recognize some of his hallmark statements throughout this movie. A lot of hands, longing looks, and some sensual moments that are filmed really well considering the sheer amount of intimacy packed into its relatively short run time.

This movie opens up in 1950, when Daniel Craig’s character, William Lee, is an American expat living in Mexico City. He spends his days going from bar to bar, enjoying the scenes in each one, and sleeping with younger men that come into town. Things change when he catches sight of Eugene, a younger American man who’s also an expat, in one of these bars. Eugene is a GI as well, which is interesting to note considering why he ended up in Mexico City.

Eugene is much younger than William, but it doesn’t stop his obsession from growing quickly. Eugene is often seen with a woman too, which implies that he might be straighter than we think from the get-go, but William continues to follow him across the bars. He does succeed in trying to have a physical relationship with Eugene, although he remains distance emotionally and won’t connect to William.

He does explain this as the fact he doesn’t see himself the same way William does. He’s not queer or as open as William is, which leads to his hesitant feelings. The scenes that these two are being sexual in though are quite intimate though, which does imply to me that the spark was there, but Eugene is smothering it under his own feelings and refusing to accept it.

William becomes obsessed with yagé, which is a South American plant that causes hallucinations and might create telepathy. He wants to go to South America to find it, and while Eugene is hesitant to join him, he does finally agree to come with William to the forests. There, William acquires opiates while claiming he has dysentery, as he’s got quite the addiction, and Eugene continues to refuse to connect with him.

In the deep Ecuadorian jungle William learns about a doctor who can help him, which is how they end up meeting Dr. Cottor. He tells them he has yagé and brews it for them once he sees the boys aren’t up to something nefarious. They start hallucinating from the drugs, which creates a moment where they mentally connect through telepathy while also vomiting out their hearts.

It’s in that moment that Eugene admits he thinks he isn’t queer, but instead disembodied (which is something William had mentioned in his dreams earlier). The very next morning though, when they’re back to normal, Eugene leaves after Dr. Cottor asks them to stay and try more yagé, and William follows after him.

The film then jumps two years. William is back in Mexico City, then learns from someone that Eugene went into South America as a guide and hasn’t been seen ever since. He’s probably dead. When William goes to bed that night, he dreams of Eugene being in the same hotel and asking him to play William Tell. William shoots him in the head and holds his body, then vanishes.

When he wakes up, he has become an old man. The film ends with Eugene, still the same age we saw him early in the movie, coming to give him comfort.

Overall Thoughts

I find Guadagnino’s films to be quite the cinematic experience, and I would say that I do have regret never being able to see this one on a big screen. It’s a return to the themes of Call Me By Your Name and Bones and All—I love Challengers and what he did with that movie, but I wanted more of his previous style from this movie and he delivered.

I also enjoyed how the push and pull between the two characters was the driving force of this movie. I don’t think the plot of this movie was entirely strong, but it’s more of a character study that hits the film’s themes hard throughout their interactions with each other. I was also really surprised to see Daniel Craig in this kind of role, as I had never seen him in this kind of work. I’d like to see him experiment more!

Anyways, this was such a solid movie that I’d recommend to anyone who seems interested in these kinds of movies. It’s sensual and rich with its visuals, creating quite the feast throughout its running time. It can seem a little slow at times, but this is a movie that kind of needs to take its time to make a splash.

Go watch it if you’re interested! I noticed it on Max after I popped the DVD copy back into its case and returned it to the library, so I’m sure it’s out there.

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