REVIEW: QUEER

4/5

Queer As Folk

137 Mins. Starring: Daniel Craig, Drew Starkey, Jason Schwartzman, Henrique Zaga & Lesley Manville. Screenplay: Justin Kuritzkes. Director: Luca Guadagnino. In: Theatres.

Mads Mikkelsen ('Casino Royale'), Christophe Waltz ('Spectre'), Rami Malek ('No Time To Die'). With all due respect to those incredible talents, all singular in their own right (despite the latter two falling a little below great villainous expectations), the best bad guy during the Daniel Craig era of James Bond has to be 'No Country For Old Men' icon Javier Bardem in 'Skyfall'. During their first conflict, Bardem's Raoul Silva forces James to play a game of William Tell with him and his love interest. The results are almost as tragic as what happened in the real life of writer William S. Burroughs, when he played this game of shooting a shot glass off his wife's head. Accidentally killing her. Now Craig plays the same shrouded in controversy and tragedy, beat writer of novels like 'Queer', which this movie adapts. Alongside footnotes of 'Junkie' and 'Naked Lunch' from 'The Nova Trilogy' man.

'Call Me By Your Name' director Luca Guadagnino may just be the finest filmmaker working today, not to mention, one of the hardest working ones. We may never see a 'Call Me' sequel, you can blame Armie Hammer for all that, but Guadagnino doubled-up with Timothée Chalamet on 'Bones And All' (regarding cannibalism, no less). Much like he has done with screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes, serving up another sexually starved and charged classic after last years 'Challengers' and that "doubles" scene with Zendaya. Based on the forty-year-old, 1985 novella set in Mexico City, this A24 period romantic drama gets epic when this expatriate gets to Ecuador in search of more (like 'Paddington In Peru', also finally released in Japan this Friday), with hallucinogenic hints of Johnny Depp going rounds with Hunter S. Thompson in 'The Rum Diary'. Like when the 'Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas' star shot the legendary writer's remains out of a cannon. Damn!

Compelling cinematography, matched by a mesmerizing score by Nine-Inch Nails stars come soundtrack kings Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, give the legacy of this movie legendary status. I mean, the stills will be studied for generations like those loving the Nirvana of this New Order that even brings the 'Musicology' and the 'Piano & I' raw takes of a Prince classic ('17 Days') to the party as you let the rain come down. This hit-and-miss movie deserved more award season attention, despite the tongue-in-cheek meme of Daniel Craig sitting above his name and the word, "Queer" below. Shedding his 007 suit and title, like he did in 'A Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery', Craig is superb. And for all those who were nominated for an Oscar or BAFTA. None had the naked (literally, physically and spiritually) ambition of him. He's Burroughs, all the way, from the guns he cradles to the grave. Staring into a model set that was his Mexico City hotel room, prison as a centipede crawls on his bedsheet and a snake eats its own tail, with a tear in its eye. Like the figure eight forever and the mistakes we make. Comforted only by a pair of legs on the bedsheet, holding you closer.

'Love, Simon' and 'The Hate U Give' star Drew Starkey is the next big one, despite his character's reluctance here. Looking completely different from the bald ambition he has forming 'Relationships' in the latest Haim music video like a 'Down To Be Wrong' Logan Lerman. A stark contrast of an actor, whether he's messing around with Daniel Craig, or Danielle Haim. A look-twice Jason Schwartzman in a fat-suit also stars in this movie, alongside Henrique Zaga ('The Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare') and an almost unrecognizable, but undeniable star of 'The Crown', Lesley Manville, taking hers. Yet it's what the great Guadagnino does that adds real character. In the mystery of love, he captured the scorching summer, sparkling water through the slicked-back hair of André Aciman's 'Call Me By Your Name' (the only book to ever make me openly weep) perfectly. And he brings the sweat soaked desire of Mexico to the back of your shirt as he shows us a love story we can all relate to, no matter who we choose to bring home. In designer director Tom Ford's 'A Single Man' starring Colin Firth, Ford imbues scenes, previously greyscale or monochrome, with colour to represent warmth every time someone breaks the barriers and makes a kind gesture. This one has haunting shadowy spirits reaching out to touch when we're so close, yet so far away from the one we love, or want to call our name. Now, if that isn't something we can all grasp in these yearning years, I don't know what can be. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Further Filming: 'Call Me By Your Name', 'A Single Man', 'The Rum Diary'.