32/26
In 1950s Mexico City, an American immigrant in his late forties lives a lonely life in a small American community. Daniel Craig was the one who 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! 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: perhaps that was to be expected, since William S. Burroughs provided the source material for both films. Mexico, William Lee, American writer on the wrong side of… forty? fifty? He spends his days getting drunk, 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? He also has that telepathic drug to think about… I’m not sure what director Luca Guadagnino is trying to achieve stylistically with this film. The sets are decorated almost exclusively in block colors – dull reds and olive greens, for example – and have that vaguely unrealistic, clean, Technicolor look that makes me think the intention is to pay homage to the films of the era in which the film is set. But if that’s the case, why is Daniel Craig (is it my imagination or is he starting to sound like Sid James?) so hamstrung in the lead role, constantly having to deliver nonsensical speeches in an accent that’s clearly not his. Drew Starkey is able to give a more subtle performance as the manipulative Eugene, and he 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 movie that feels to me to be more about artistic style than the substance of storytelling. It was good to see it once, but I won’t watch it again.