
William Lee (played by Daniel Craig) spends his days in Mexico City drinking tequila or rum and coke and pursuing his drug addiction. Always slightly hungover and sweaty, he sits in a Fitzcarraldo-esque suit (with insanely good glasses) in a bar with his buddy, making big speeches and seemingly waiting for something. One day, the beautiful Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey) walks into the bar and Lee falls in love. And then — as every queer person is familiar with — begin a few nervous attempts to find out if Allerton is gay too. But all the furtive sideways glances, bad jokes and drunken flirting attempts seem to slide off him, every tender gesture is wiped away. In the end, a relationship does develop between the two. Together they set off for Ecuador because Lee wants to take ayahuasca in the rainforest in true midlife crisis style. What follows is a trip that sets the dynamics of their relationship in motion. Luca Guadagnino’s adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ novella Queer is an aesthetic fever dream. And between surrealist visions, a wonderfully pastel-yellowish color palette, costumes by JW Anderson and a great soundtrack by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, I’ve finally become a Daniel Craig fan. He may never quite make it into Eugene’s heart, drunk, stork-legged and with a spoiled muzzle, but he does make it into mine. Queer is now available to watch exclusively on Mubi. If you don’t have a subscription yet, you can trial Mubi here for 30 days free.
Text: Inga Krumme / Credit: Mubi
Queer can now be streamed via Mubi.
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