‘Queer’ Review: Luca Guadagnino’s Latest Is a Sizzling Psychedelic Exploration

The works of renowned director Luca Guadagnino have quickly seized the movie conversation of 2024. Challengers, with its illustrious trinity of actors and thumping score being an anthem of the summer, is one of the best movies of the year.

This fact has given way to the Luca hive emerging from the dark caverns of weirdo film culture, spearheading revivals of his lesser-praised works like Suspiria and Bones and All. Queer, Guadagnino’s latest sizzling psychedelic sexcapade, will only catapult him into the culture even further, offering up one of his most complex and visually fascinating stories that is sure to be divisive once the credits roll.

What Is Luca Guadagnino’s ‘Queer’ About?

Based on the 1985 novel of the same name by author William S. Burroughs, Queer is a historical romance drama that takes place in 1940s Mexico City. Set underneath the sun-kissed Hacienda housing and wearily lit watering holes where all of the local queers lounge, the film follows an ex-pat by the name of Lee (Daniel Craig). Hard-pressed to put the bottle down as he bounces from bar to bar, Lee navigates the nightlife from early evening to the slender hours of moonlight, consistently rejected in his conquest for a lover of the night.

Looking to fill the holes in his soul (and body) with anybody willing, Lee treks the maze within his heart trying to understand who he really is. Along with his loquacious companion (played brilliantly by Jason Schwartzman), he is confined to mundane milling about, hoping each day to physically partake in his queer desires. That is until Allerton (Drew Starkey) becomes the crown jewel that he must have.

Starkey, in what is sure to be a breakout performance that could even receive some buzz come Academy Awards season, plays coy and strong; independent and reserved. He expeditiously forms a bond with Lee — they recuse themselves for an evening not long after meeting for the first time for a night full of cigarettes, brandy, and cock sucking — that is more than physical. It’s emotional. It’s spiritual. It’s everything Lee has been needing and looking for.

‘Queer’ Is Guadagnino’s Most Challenging Film Yet

Less a story about the spoils of sensationally sultry sex set under the vision of Guadagnino and the cinematography of the great Sayombhu Mukdeeprom (who also shot Challengers with Guadagnino) and more an exploration of the deep yearning that comes with age, Queer delivers an almost otherworldly performance from Craig. Unlike anything he’s done before, Craig handles the delicacy and potency of a script penned by Justin Kuritzkes (another Challengers collaborator), who is married to the luminous Celine Song of Past Lives, consistently conveying the hollow caverns among Lee’s deepest insecurities.

As the film progresses, it presents itself as Guadagnino’s least easy-to-access on many fronts. The consistent needle drops of culture-defining songs such as “Come As You Are” by Nirvana interlaced with a melancholic score created by the legendary duo of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross aside, the deeply throbbing material swoons towards visually experimental as Lee and Allerton experience more of life together. The film asks a lot of its audience: to complete Lee’s manic journey even after an ayahuasca-fueled jungle expedition that simultaneously grows intriguing and tiresome.

Fans of films such as Synecdoche, New York and the wandering works of Charlie Kaufman will undoubtedly dig Queer. Equal parts challenging, thought-provoking, and confounding, the cinematic statement arranges itself upon the mantle of great movies that discuss the lonely essence of love. Luca’s visual juxtaposition in casting Daniel Craig — a gorgeous Hollywood movie star — as a man unable to access his own truth, beauty, and fondness is a sagacious example of his own filmmaking prowess that the movie only deepens with.

Is ‘Queer’ Oscars Material?

Having been picked up by A24 after premiering at the Venice Film Festival, there are likely awards that Queer could be eyeing come awards season. Daniel Craig for Best Actor, Best Makeup, and even Best Score could be among them. There’s a sense that Queer is a bit outside of the comfortable range of motion picture content for the Academy — an ironically sad reality considering the themes behind the film.

Without an official release date from the famed distributor, it’s hard to tell where they will supply their resources in the awards race. Even if Queer doesn’t appear as a front-runner come March, the film is worth seeing for its visual prowess and sticky thematic expeditions it embarks on.

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