Luca Guadagnino’s “Queer”: a spellbinding drama starring Daniel Craig
Released in the U.S. in November 2024, Luca Guadagnino’s latest film, Queer, finally arrives in French cinemas this Wednesday, February 26, 2025. Between a quest for identity, obsessive love and hallucinatory visions, this hypnotic drama promises an unsettling cinematic experience.
A journey to the heart of inner turmoil
Based on the 1985 novel by William S. Burroughs, Queer transports the viewer to 1940s Mexico, between speakeasies and scorching landscapes. We follow Lee, an American expatriate in the grip of a deep malaise, played by Daniel Craig, who reinvents himself here in a role far removed from his muscular James Bond performances. Searching for a meaning to his existence, he falls under the spell of Allerton, a young man as seductive as he is unattainable, played by Drew Starkey.
Lee, tormented by his unfulfilled desires, oscillates between destructive passion and existential quest. As the heat of Mexico intensifies tensions, the film explores emotional dependence, loss of self and the desperate search for authentic connection.
Between hallucinations and love obsession
In her quest for meaning, Lee embarks on a fascinating journey withAllerton, in search of a hallucinogenic plant with telepathic properties. The beverage, prepared by an unrecognizable Lesley Manville, doesn’t provide the answers Lee was hoping for. Instead of mystical enlightenment, he finds himself faced with a cruel mirror of his own condition, accentuating his sense of isolation and inner emptiness.
Luca Guadagnino, true to his sensual and disturbing style, signs here a feverish staging where desire and perdition mingle dangerously. After Call Me by Your Name and Bones and All, the filmmaker continues to explore complex relationships and raw emotions, this time in a sweaty, hallucinatory atmosphere.
A poisonous drama not to be missed
Like the venomous beetle that snakes its way across the screen, Queer instills a slow, insidious tension, capturing the essence of an impossible obsession. Carried by a magnetic Daniel Craig, this existential thriller navigates between burning desire and silent pain.
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