45/48
Mentioned in Spotlight: Why Do We Need the Venice Film Festival?
Story
Lee, who tells the story of his life in Mexico City among American immigrant students and bar owners surviving on part-time jobs and GI Bill benefits, is forced to take on a young man named Allerton, who is based on Adelbert Lewis Marker. IMDb editor Arno Kazarian provides quick reviews of the 12 films he screened at the 2024 New York Film Festival, including Anora and the dangerous and strangely erotic Mercy. Daniel Craig was ultimately the one who convinced Luca Guadagnino to cast Drew Starkey after watching Guadagnino’s audition tapes and telling him “That’s the guy” after seeing Starkey.
Burroughs provided the source material for both films
(2024). I’d never seen “Naked Lunch” (1991), but I thought about it often during the screening of “Queer” at the 2024 London Film Festival – probably to be expected, since William S. In 1950s Mexico, William Lee, an American writer on the wrong side of… forty?
But what does Eugene himself want?
Fifty? spends his days getting drunk, shooting up drugs and having sex with other men. One day, Eugene, a muscular, intelligent young man, walks into the bar and Lee falls for him.
But if that’s the case, then why is the soundtrack decidedly not 50s rock and techno?
Then there’s the matter of telepathic drugs to think about… I’m not sure what director Luca Guadagnino is trying to achieve with this film, stylistically. The set is almost entirely decorated in solid colours (dull reds and olive greens, for example) and has that vaguely unreal, clean, colourful look that made me think the intention was to pay homage to films from the era the film is set in. Daniel Craig (is it my imagination or is he starting to sound like Sid James?) is hamstrung in the lead role as he constantly has to deliver meaningless speeches in an accent that is clearly not his own.
I might watch it once, but I won’t watch it again
Drew Starkey is able to give a more subtle performance as the manipulative Eugene, and he certainly looks the part. Lesley Manville is unrecognisable as a doctor living in the South American jungle – bravo to the make-up team! This is the kind of film I think is more artistic than narrative.