Coming off a major figure in popular culture such as the likes of Superman, Batman or Bond, has always been a difficult thing to tackle. To distance yourself from a popular culture icon and gain some identity in the roles that you want to take, without having the public be reminded of your previous character. Daniel Craig enters a new era of his career, Post-Bond, which took up 18 years of his life, as he attempts to rebrand himself. Starting arguably with Rian Johnson’s detective Benoit Blanc series, Craig has become known for his over-the-top thick southern accent which he uses again in Luca Guadagnino’s Queer, an adaptation of William S Burrough’s novella.
Craig plays Bill Lee, a washed-out gay American with a southern accent and Linen shirts, slightly floppy hair, and clear frame glasses strutting down the street of a small Mexico City suburb in the 1950s. Craig’s Lee is lonely, desperate for connection, but acutely aware of himself as gay and unimpressed by anyone less willing to be openly expressive in their identity. Whilst set in Mexico City, the area feels like its own separate fantasy community. Lee is free to express himself, however, the people who come and go are less willing to be so open, despite Nirvana’s Come As You Are playing as if a plea from Lee to those around him to be open. “Come as you are, as you were, as I want you to be”.
Lee is a unique figure blending together the boisterous confidence of his American identity with a more British melancholia which would once be the sort of thing Hugh Grant was typecast for. A sad, lonely stroll of discontent but at the same time acceptance. Lee has become at peace with the idea he will never be happy. Until he meets Eugene Allerton, played by Drew Starkey, a man of a much younger age, who Lee is unsure of their connection with. They lock eyes and Lee has a possessive almost demonic gaze, a reawakening of hunger. The film shows the two coming together, as Lee struggles to understand Allerton, questioning whether he is actually queer at all. The film follows their journey, with Lee desperate to take it further, searching for a drug that he believes will give him the power of telepathy, to truly understand Allerton.
Guadagnino gives great sensuality to Queer, especially in the opening act, where there is a great desperation from Lee. Beautifully lit, there is a great period aspect to the film, it is looking back in time in rose-tinted glasses, as Craig strolls down the Mexican streets. There is great lighting making the film alluring and addictive, through its period quality, despite the anachronistic needle drops, especially of Nirvana’s back catalogue, which gives the film a different sense of the past, like a retelling that has played on Lee’s mind his whole life.
Whereas Guadagnino has been known for a more intense style of showing love, such as in Challengers released earlier this year, or in Bones and All and A Bigger Splash. Here Guadagnino’s use of love is more desperate quietly and painfully, as Lee struggles to understand those around him, it is intensely lonely. Likewise, Reznor and Ross’s score is much more tranquil, almost having the sound of a Hitchcockian thriller setting its scene. Where the film struggles, however, is that it can be particularly cold, with the mystique adding to the frustration, there is a distance and I struggled to connect to what Guadagnino is trying to get at. Particularly in the latter scenes of intense surrealism that need a second watch to fully comprehend everything that the film is trying to say.
Nevertheless, Daniel Craig gives a terrific performance as the painfully lonely Lee. Opening the film almost as a caricature – brash and bold, assertive in identity. But as the film reveals itself there is great nuance to the character, showing the immense pain and struggle he is going through, and Craig shows the immense lengths Lee will go to understand Allerton, to have a telepathic relationship, to be on the same wavelength.
Queer allows Craig to show his true ability, in an incredibly sensual and lonely piece by Guadagnino, whose oeuvre continually expands the layers of love and lust. However, the film ultimately is too cold to fully connect to everything it is trying to say. Especially in its surreal moments, Queer feels like it needs a second watch to fully comprehend everything that is happening on the screen.
Comentarios