Justin Chang

That may surprise some of the director's fans, since his swoony romanticism, on display in the recent Challengers, isn't an obvious fit with the biting rawness of Burroughs' prose. At the same time, Guadagnino clearly likes to push against expectations, and his horror movies, like Suspiria, have shown a flair for the surreal and grotesque.

That may surprise some of the director's fans, since his swoony romanticism, on display in the recent Challengers, isn't an obvious fit with the biting rawness of Burroughs' prose. At the same time, Guadagnino clearly likes to push against expectations, and his horror movies, like Suspiria, have shown a flair for the surreal and grotesque.

That may surprise some of the director's fans, since his swoony romanticism, on display in the recent Challengers, isn't an obvious fit with the biting rawness of Burroughs' prose. At the same time, Guadagnino clearly likes to push against expectations, and his horror movies, like Suspiria, have shown a flair for the surreal and grotesque.

Even when Queer's narrative loses momentum, it's fascinating to see a filmmaker, known for his lush, beautiful surfaces, try to connect with a writer's famously uncompromising ugliness. For the first hour or so, the screenplay by Justin Kuritskas is largely faithful to its source.

Even when Queer's narrative loses momentum, it's fascinating to see a filmmaker, known for his lush, beautiful surfaces, try to connect with a writer's famously uncompromising ugliness. For the first hour or so, the screenplay by Justin Kuritskas is largely faithful to its source.

Even when Queer's narrative loses momentum, it's fascinating to see a filmmaker, known for his lush, beautiful surfaces, try to connect with a writer's famously uncompromising ugliness. For the first hour or so, the screenplay by Justin Kuritskas is largely faithful to its source.

But things take a weird turn once Lee talks Allerton into a trip to South America, so they can find a psychedelic called Yahe, or ayahuasca, which can apparently confer telepathic powers. Deep in the jungles of Ecuador, Guadagnino essentially tries to imagine the mind-blowing ending that Burroughs never wrote.

But things take a weird turn once Lee talks Allerton into a trip to South America, so they can find a psychedelic called Yahe, or ayahuasca, which can apparently confer telepathic powers. Deep in the jungles of Ecuador, Guadagnino essentially tries to imagine the mind-blowing ending that Burroughs never wrote.

But things take a weird turn once Lee talks Allerton into a trip to South America, so they can find a psychedelic called Yahe, or ayahuasca, which can apparently confer telepathic powers. Deep in the jungles of Ecuador, Guadagnino essentially tries to imagine the mind-blowing ending that Burroughs never wrote.

The director is clearly having fun, filling the screen with hallucinatory imagery, and introducing a gun-toting healer, played by an unrecognizable Leslie Manville.

The director is clearly having fun, filling the screen with hallucinatory imagery, and introducing a gun-toting healer, played by an unrecognizable Leslie Manville.

The director is clearly having fun, filling the screen with hallucinatory imagery, and introducing a gun-toting healer, played by an unrecognizable Leslie Manville.

in one maddening and mesmerizing sequence a drugged-out lee and allerton dance silently in the nude their bodies twisting and melting together as though under a kaleidoscope guadagnino is working overtime to honor burroughs in the thoroughly bonkers epilogue set back in mexico he goes well beyond the parameters of the novel to weave in moments from the writer's tumultuous life

in one maddening and mesmerizing sequence a drugged-out lee and allerton dance silently in the nude their bodies twisting and melting together as though under a kaleidoscope guadagnino is working overtime to honor burroughs in the thoroughly bonkers epilogue set back in mexico he goes well beyond the parameters of the novel to weave in moments from the writer's tumultuous life

in one maddening and mesmerizing sequence a drugged-out lee and allerton dance silently in the nude their bodies twisting and melting together as though under a kaleidoscope guadagnino is working overtime to honor burroughs in the thoroughly bonkers epilogue set back in mexico he goes well beyond the parameters of the novel to weave in moments from the writer's tumultuous life

But the reason queer works as well as it does has everything to do with Craig's performance. It's worth remembering that long before he became James Bond, or a gay detective in the Knives Out movies, Craig played the tempestuous younger lover of the painter Francis Bacon in the 1998 drama Love is the Devil. He flips that equation brilliantly in Queer.

But the reason queer works as well as it does has everything to do with Craig's performance. It's worth remembering that long before he became James Bond, or a gay detective in the Knives Out movies, Craig played the tempestuous younger lover of the painter Francis Bacon in the 1998 drama Love is the Devil. He flips that equation brilliantly in Queer.

But the reason queer works as well as it does has everything to do with Craig's performance. It's worth remembering that long before he became James Bond, or a gay detective in the Knives Out movies, Craig played the tempestuous younger lover of the painter Francis Bacon in the 1998 drama Love is the Devil. He flips that equation brilliantly in Queer.

With robust physicality and delicate emotion, he shows us a man in wretched yet defiant thrall to his wants, for sex, for love, for a moment of out-of-body transcendence. It's a singular performance, but also, in its expression of pure desire, a deeply human one.

With robust physicality and delicate emotion, he shows us a man in wretched yet defiant thrall to his wants, for sex, for love, for a moment of out-of-body transcendence. It's a singular performance, but also, in its expression of pure desire, a deeply human one.