Luca Guadagnino’s ‘Queer’ Starring Daniel Craig and Drew Starkey: “A Hallucinogenic Odyssey Bathed in Desire”

Luca Guadagnino’s Queer, starring Daniel Craig and Drew Starkey, is all set for its world premiere at the 81st Venice International Film Festival, followed by a screening at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film is described as “a hallucinogenic odyssey bathed in desire.”

According to the TIFF website logline for Queer, Lee (Craig) mingles with the expatriate set in postwar Mexico City—wandering its streets, frequenting its gay bars, and ingesting whatever illicit substances are available. He is a consummate raconteur who has no trouble finding an audience, but he is also a desperately lonely, middle-aged addict with an alarming fondness for guns. Early in Queer, Lee sets his sights on a journey to the Amazon in search of the potentially telepathic ayahuasca—and he wants handsome, young, bi-curious Oklahoman Allerton (Drew Starkey, The Hate U Give, TIFF ’18) to accompany him. Their travels will yield a string of unexpected encounters and provide Lee with sobering lessons in what Burroughs dubbed “the algebra of need.”

Directed by Guadagnino—from a screenplay by Justin Kuritzkes—Queer is based on the 1985 novel by William S. Burroughs. Queer is both faithful to the book and a radical re-imagining. Period detail is offset by anachronistic musical choices, while an eerie epilogue alludes to the real-life tragedy that prompted Burroughs’ writing career. Through it all, Craig makes Lee his own, creating a fully lived-in protagonist whose unruly obsessions lead to something akin to enlightenment.

The cast of ‘Queer’ includes Craig as William Lee, Starkey as Eugene Allerton, Jason Schwartzman as Frank Cochran, Lesley Manville as Alice Cochran, Henry Zaga as Winston Moor, Drew Droege as John Dume, Ariel Schulman as Tom Weston, Colin Bates as Tom Williams, Ronia Ava as Joan, Perla Ambrosini as Lee’s Mother, and Simon Rizzoni as the Bartender. The film will also feature Omar Apollo, Michaël Borremans, Andra Ursuța, David Lowery, Lisandro Alonso, Ford Leland, Sean Cubito, Diego Benzoni, Radu Murarasu, and Francesco Lupo Sturani in roles yet to be announced.

In an interview with Cinecittà News, Luca Guadagnino calls Queer as his “most personal film”:

“It’s a tribute to Powell & Pressburger. I’ve seen The Red Shoes 50 times, and I think Queer’s sex scenes, which are numerous and quite outrageous, would be appreciated.”

Queer will premiere at the 81st Venice International Film Festival on September 3. Recently, the film was acquired by A24 for theatrical release in the United States.