Queer | Review by: Amanda Guarragi
The concept of loneliness has been explored in many ways. People may experience loneliness while in a relationship or by feeling isolated from the rest of the world. Whether the isolation is by choice to heal or to keep themselves safe, the underlying pain will unravel.
At times, the loss of self in a relationship accompanies the desperation of wanting the other person to see you how you want to be seen and, more importantly, how you want to be loved. People sometimes accept the treatment they think they deserve because the need for unconditional love overpowers logic.
In Luca Guadagnino’s Queer, he explores the excitement of a new relationship through lustful, intimate moments between William Lee (Daniel Craig) and Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey). The film is set in the early fifties in Mexico City. It is adapted from the novel of the same name by William S. Burroughs. Guadagnino has Lee venturing through the bar scene attempting to find a partner tactfully because of how secretive the love affair would be.
Craig’s performance as Lee is one of his best. He is exuberant and sensual but also awkward in certain moments. Once Lee meets Eugene, his world is turned upside down, and the conventional queerness that Lee has lived by has changed with the younger generation. Lee craves Eugene, and the anticipation of the two uniting as one is beautifully executed.
Guadagnino uses motion through Lee’s ghost self when wanting to cross the line with Eugene, almost like lost moments of the chances not taken by Lee. Eugene didn’t treat Lee like the other men he had been with. Eugene was nonchalant with their exchanges, which would drive Lee mad. Guadagnino drew them together for small moments only to rip them apart as individuals experiencing two sides of the same coin. Love and lust go hand in hand, but if someone is experiencing both and the other is not, it’s a devastating journey.
It’s one of Guadagnino’s more intimate portraits of relationships where individuality gets lost in the persona of who they long to be. During the on-again-off-again nature of Lee and Eugene’s relationship, Lee suffers from substance abuse and has an altered perception of his reality. He understands his place in Eugene’s life and would want the comfort of his presence with him without actually being tied to him.
Once we get to the third act, Guadagnino leans into the obscure surrealist aspects to create a chilling exchange of possession and succumbing to those feelings. The immense power of wanting someone and not being able to have them, the overwhelming sickness that overtakes you knowing you’ll never be with them, and the self-deprecation of being enough. Queer is not the strongest Guadagnino picture, but it is the most ambitious and poignant of his work.
4/5
Review by: Amanda Guarragi
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