Queer: Daniel Craig Continues his Stellar Post-Bond Work

By Chris Knight

Rating: A-

There’s an argument to be made that Daniel Craig is the best actor ever to have played James Bond. Now, I know Connery fans will point out that Sir Sean won an “Oshcar,” but there is a certain sameness to his admittedly excellent cast of characters. Check out his Scottish-Russian submarine commander in The Hunt for Red October if you don’t believe me.

And Craig, the first GenX Bond (born in ’68) isn’t finished his career yet. Nor is he resting on Her Majesty’s secret laurels. In addition to having a ball playing Benoit Blanc in a trio of Knives Out movies —the third is due next year — he has in Queer crafted a stellar performance that has earned him Golden Globe and Critics Choice nominations, and might well score him his first Oscar nod as well.

Craig stars as William Lee, a thinly disguised William S. Burroughs in this adaptation of Burroughs’ 1985 novella (mostly written in the ’50s) of the same name. Rambling around Mexico City — the real Burroughs also spent time there with his common-law wife, avoiding possible drug charges in America —Lee cuts a dashing, debonair and, if we’re honest, somewhat desperate figure.

When we meet him, he is trying to pick up young American expats for quick flings. If that fails, a local boy will do just as well. These meetings are about sex and nothing more, but when Lee meets Allerton (Drew Starkey), it’s clear there’s an emotional connection as well.

In their first night together (which does not happen immediately), Lee pleases Allerton, as is his wont, and Allerton insists on returning the favour. This is also by way of saying that there are some male homosexual love scenes in the movie. Recall that director Luca Guadagnino also made this year’s Challengers and 2017’s Call Me By Your Name.

Theirs is a trippy love affair, full of weird dreams and portents. At one point they go to see Jean Cocteau’s 1950 film Orpheus, in which a character passes through a mirror to enter another world, a half-century before Keanu Reeves managed it in The Matrix.

Lee is also obsessed with a hallucinogenic plant that grows in Ecuador. When he and Allerton travel there to investigate its allegedly telepathic-enhancing qualities, they find its secrets guarded by a gun-toting Dr. Cotter, played by an almost unrecognizable Lesley Manville.

Craig is easily the best thing in Queer, which grows a little maudlin at the end. Burroughs himself never properly completed the story, having lost interest along the way. But that’s not to say that his performance is the sole reason to see it.

The score, by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, is haunting, including an odd cicada-esque drumbeat over the sex scenes. And Guadagnino’s direction is always intriguing, as is the cinematography by Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, a Thai filmmaker whose other credits include Challengers, Call Me By Your Name, and the oddly titled 2010 Palme d’Or winner Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall All His Past Lives.

Some Bond actors have had the spectre of the role hang over the rest of their careers, but Craig is making bold and welcome choices in his post-spy years.

Queer. Directed by Luca Guadagnino. Starring Daniel Craig, and Drew Starkey. In theatres December 13.