Critics reviews

Guadagnino has followed up this year’s triumphant tennis drama Challengers with a film that would seem miles apart, yet treats desire equally as a kind of supernatural possession... [Burroughs's source novella is] a feverish, agonised document of addiction and abortive passion, into which the director has weaved further elements of the author’s life.

[Queer] is a haunting study of unrequited desire filled with heartbreak and tenderness, centred on a revelatory performance from Craig.

“Queer” often suggests a 1980s art house import by an outlaw filmmaker that was just recently unearthed: the kind of film that would slowly build an audience at midnight showings. It also serves up a smorgasbord of explicit homoerotic imagery, surrealism and ambiguity at a time when Western culture seems to be stampeding towards 1950s prurience, fascist-scented literal-mindedness, and corporate self-censorship, “Queer” is a film out of its time in just about every way. That’s what’s invigorating about it.

“Queer” often suggests a 1980s art house import by an outlaw filmmaker that was just recently unearthed: the kind of film that would slowly build an audience at midnight showings. It also serves up a smorgasbord of explicit homoerotic imagery, surrealism and ambiguity at a time when Western culture seems to be stampeding towards 1950s prurience, fascist-scented literal-mindedness, and corporate self-censorship, “Queer” is a film out of its time in just about every way. That’s what’s invigorating about it.

Queer is an audacious adaptation and yet another remarkable film in Guadagnino's increasingly impressive filmography, as well as a showcase for a captivating performance by Craig.

[Queer] is a feverish, quietly sad exploration of longing and infatuation. Its lack of focus stifles the experience, but Daniel Craig has rarely been as compelling a watch.

[Queer] reimagines [Burroughs's source novella] as an intimate epic that almost feels designed to perplex and provoke in equal measure... Daniel Craig is downright sensational in what proves to be a transformative role.

Sordid, steamy, and exceedingly swooning... [Queer] truly is a solid match of moviemaker and source material. Yet none of this would work as well as it does without Craig... This is a milestone in his career.

The film may be as fragmented as its protagonist and, ultimately, unable to reconcile its disparate facets, but [Craig's] portrait of desire, degradation, and delirium is a sight to behold—and the performance of his career.

[Guadagnino] creates a strong sense of place, so much so that by the end of the movie, you feel like you are intimately familiar with the Mexico City gay bar scene in 1950... [while] Craig delivers one of his best performances to date as Lee, investing him with a palpable world-weariness and making you feel every moment of hope, desire, ecstasy and crushing disappointment.

[Queer] a less straightforward film than anything Guadagnino has made before, and certainly less obvious in its execution, but perhaps that’s in the spirit of Burroughs’ work... Burroughs believed in magic, and watching Queer, one has an inkling that Guadagnino does too.

Craig is sensational in a role swimming in psychological complexity, which he marshals with rare intuition and grace... Queer doesn’t scrimp on provocation and pleasure, but it’s also a beautiful film about male loneliness, and the way a solitary life can so easily shade into a life sentence.