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Daniel Craig sheds his 007 persona to portray the torment of a drug-addicted gay man in an emotional adaptation of William Burroughs’ novel Queer. Raw and riveting.
In a stark departure from his suave James Bond image, Daniel Craig takes on a grittier, more vulnerable role in the new film Queer, which premiered Tuesday at the Venice Film Festival. Directed by Luca Guadagnino, the movie is based on the 1985 novel of the same name by Beat Generation writer William Burroughs, known for exploring taboo themes like sexuality and drug use in his boundary-pushing works.
Craig plays William Lee, an aging, lonely writer in 1940s Mexico City, who numbs his pain with alcohol and casual sexual encounters with men. His life takes a dramatic turn when he becomes infatuated with a much younger American named Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey). Their passionate but ill-fated romance sends Lee spiraling further into despair and addiction.
“Queer is this emotional thump, a tiny book but an emotional thump,” Craig said of the film. “It is about love, it’s about loss, it’s about loneliness, it’s about yearning, it’s about all of these things.”
To authentically portray the raw intimacy between the two men, Craig and Starkey rehearsed their graphic sex scenes for months to make them feel as “touching and real and natural” as possible. The result is a performance that IndieWire described as “all inner torment [Craig] wears on the outside as a deeply lonely man doomed to an unrequited all-consuming love.”
Desperate to forge a deeper connection with his young lover, Lee convinces Eugene to journey with him to South America in search of a telepathy-inducing drug called yage. In a narrative detour reminiscent of Heart of Darkness, the men visit a remote camp run by an eccentric American scientist to source the potent hallucinogen Lee believes will bring him closer to Eugene.
Guadagnino brings a haunting visual style to the tortured love story, with atmospheric shots of dingy mattresses, littered manuscripts and menacing jungles. He was drawn to Burroughs’ semi-autobiographical tale for the way it explores “the idea of seeing people and not judging them,” aiming to find humanity even in troubled characters grappling with their demons.
The director praised Craig for allowing his “fragility” to show through in his embodiment of Lee’s anguish – a far cry from the unflappable cool of 007. By digging deep to portray a man unraveling under the weight of his desires and addictions, Craig delivers a riveting performance that lingers long after the final frame.
Queer marks another triumph for Guadagnino, whose previous films like Call Me by Your Name and Bones and All have earned him accolades, including Venice’s Silver Lion prize. With its unflinching look at loneliness, obsession and the darker recesses of the human psyche, Queer cements the director’s reputation as a visionary unafraid to shine a light on complex, often uncomfortable truths.
While the explicit depictions of sex and drug use may prove controversial for some viewers, Queer ultimately stands as a poignant, painfully human portrait of a man consumed by an impossible love. By baring body and soul, Daniel Craig proves his versatility as an actor while illuminating the enduring power of Burroughs’ transgressive storytelling.
