30/12
In 1950s Mexico City, an American immigrant in his 40s lives a lonely life in a small American community. However, the arrival of the young student encourages the man to form a meaningful bond with someone. Ultimately, it was Daniel Craig who convinced Luca Guadagnino to cast Drew Starkey after watching casting videos of Guadagnino and telling him, “This is the one” after seeing Starkey. William Lee: Sit Your Ass Down! Or What Was Left of Him After Four Years in the Navy. The Graham Norton Show Stars: Daniel Craig/Nicola Coughlan/Jesse Eisenberg/Kieran Culkin/Flo (2024). I’ve never seen Naked Lunch (1991), but I thought about it a lot during the 2024 London Film Festival screening of Queer: that’s probably to be expected, given that William S. Burroughs provided the basis for both films. Set in 1950s Mexico, William Lee, an American writer on the wrong side of… Forty? Fifty? She spends her days getting drunk, injecting drugs, and having sex with other men. One day, a muscular, intelligent, handsome young man named Eugene walks into the bar, and Lee is smitten. But what does Eugene himself want? And then there’s that telepathic drug you have to think about… I’m not sure what director Luca Guadagnino is trying to achieve stylistically with this film. The sets are almost entirely in solid colors – matte reds and olive greens, for example – and have this slightly unreal, clean, colorful look that made me think the intention was to pay tribute to the films of the era in which the film is set. . But if that’s the case, why is the soundtrack decidedly not ’50s rock and techno? Daniel Craig (am I imagining it or is he starting to look like Sid James?) is incapable of acting in the lead role, constantly having to make nonsense speeches in an accent that is clearly not his own. Drew Starkey can give a more subtle performance as the manipulative Eugene and certainly looks the part. Lesley Manville is unrecognizable as the doctor living in the South American jungle – kudos to the makeup team! I think this type of film is more artistic than telling a story. I might watch it once, but I won’t watch it again.
