36/44
Mentioned in Close-Up: Why do We Need the Venice Film Festival?
Narrative
Lee, who recounts his life in Mexico City among American expats, students, and bar owners surviving on part-time jobs and GI Bill benefits. He is forced to pursue a young man named Allerton, who is based on Adelbert Lewis Marker.. IMDb editor Arnaud Kazarian offers quick previews of 12 films he is screening at the 2024 New York Film Festival, including Anora and the Dangerous , the strangely erotic Misericordia .. Luca Guadagnino states in an interview that Queer is a project he’s wanted to do since he was 20..
Burroughs provided the source material for both films
(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 expected, since William S. In the 1950s; México, William Lee, American writer on the wrong side of…forty? fifty?
But what does Eugene himself want?
He spends his days getting drunk, shooting and having casual sex with other men. One day, a muscular, smart young man, Eugene, walks into the bar and Lee is smitten. Plus there’s that telepathic drug thing to think about… I’m not sure what stylistically director Luca Guadagnino is trying to achieve with this film.
But if that’s the case, why the decidedly non-1950s rock and techno soundtrack?
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 made me think the intention was to pay homage to the films of the era in which the film is set. Daniel Craig (is it my imagination or is he starting to look like Sid James?) is hamstrung in the title role, constantly having to recite nonsensical speeches in an accent that clearly wasn’t 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 make-up team!
It was good to see it once, but I won’t be watching it again
It’s the type of movie that feels like it’s more about artistic style than storytelling substance. Check out the full lineup for the 62nd New York Film Festival this fall.