acid reflects reviews

My hyperacidity was exacerbated as I watched Daniel Craig down shot after shot of tequila in the first third of Luca Guadagnino’s 2024 romantic gay (gay romantic?) drama, Queer. Also I had a bad meal for dinner just before attending the screening. So maybe it was more of that than just the sight of bottles of liquor being downed.

Local mall chain Ayala Malls Cinemas will exclusively release Queer starting June 10 as its Pride month offering.

Queer premiered at the 2024 Venice Film Fest, and later released on streaming January of 2025. It’s very likely that the target audience has already seen this film one way or the other. The Ayala release is the actual commercial release in the Philippines.

Queer is the melancholic journey of a lonesome middle-aged gay man who discovers deep companionship with a young man who himself has yet to acknowledge his own identity.

The story is laid out in three chapters and an epilogue. It is slow and languid, as the story isn’t plot-driven. At times the chapterstops felt like sour reminders that the film was from its conclusion.

It is the 1950s and US writer William Lee (Craig) spends his hot, humid afternoons and nights downing shots of tequila along a small strip of bars in Mexico City. Occasionally he would interact with a few other US American immigrants in Ship Ahoy, the bar managed by his friend and fellow queer Joe (a plumped-up Jason Schwartzman), Sometimes Lee strolls along the shady street, cruising at one of the bars for a quick, noncommittal encounter.

Until one night when Lee chances upon ex-soldier Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey) just casually passing by. The slow-mo scene anachronistically tuned to Nirvana’s Come As You Are. Lee is instantly smitten by the archetypal mysterious young man (excuse me sir, your jaw is on the floor). From that time onwards, Lee would seek ways to encounter or chat with Eugene in the streets or in the bars – anything to grab the attention of the lean, tall, and young ex-soldier.

The two eventually reach a certain comfortable friendship, but it is obvious that Lee wants more than just a drinking companion. At times Lee displays some unease whenever Eugene is with Mary (Andra Ursu), making Lee unsure of Eugene’s sexuality. His fixation towards Eugene is like an intense addiction. He’s normal when they’re around each other’s company, but is in some form of withdrawal when they’re not.

Lee convinces Eugene to accompany him down to South America. In truth, Lee’s quest to find a certain hallucinogenic root crop is less about telepathy and more about finding certainty in his life. For most of their travels, Lee is sick and tended by Eugene. At this point Lee’s additction with opiates is revealed. A local doctor recognizes the symptoms, and prescribes Lee a small dose with hesitation.

Deep in the jungles of Ecuador, the duo find off-the-grid healer Doctor Cotter (Leslie Mansfield) who knows about the hallucinogen that Lee is looking for. A few nights later, Cotter reveals to Lee that he has been surrounded by the elusive root crop all along. That night, the quartet (Lee, Eugene, Cotter and her partner) partake of the boiled hallucinogen. As the trippy effects kick in, the universe opens up to Lee but not to Eugene, who declares that he isn’t queer despite everything that has happened to them. Still in the trippy dream, Lee is furious but can’t do anything about it. They do a dance like a theater dance, making awkward poses of their bodies. Later that night after the effects have worn off, Eugene is obviously distant towards Lee, telling him to sleep it off.

The following day before heading back to Mexico, Cotter tells Eugene that a door has already opened, but Eugene is ambiguous. In the jungle, Lee loses Eugene, implying that they have parted ways, never to see each other again.

The last act of Queer is a mixed bag. Two years later, Lee is back in the strip in Mexico and finds Joe still managing Ship Ahoy. Joe tells Lee that he overheard somewhere that just months before, Eugene accompanied a military colonel as a tour guide.

After this is a bizaare poetic sequence in a dollhouse. Lea takes a peek into his past, longing for that life before meeting Eugene. His desire for Eugene has become such a burden that he would be glad to end it (the gun). And yet he still weep about it (the snake in an infinity loop). In the final moments of this dream, Lee, aged and alone in a room, shakes uncontrollably cold on a bed. Even Eugene’s imaginary legs can’t warm Lee’s shaking. It’s quite sad, though reminiscent of the old couple’s last moments in James Cameron’s Titanic.

I’ve never read the sort of autobiographical novel by William S. Borroughs, so I don’t know and can’t compare especially the many metaphorical dream sequences in the film, what was kept and what was left out from the screenplay by Justin Kuritzkes. For a more in-depth discussion of the film’s ending, Time Magazine came up with a fantastic breakdown here.

Despite the gorgeous cinematography by Sayombhu Mukdeeprom and the amazing miniatures by the art department, some shots would look like they passed through generative AI (with all due respect to the artists, I do not wish to insult them this way, it’s just that since the film’s release in 2024, AI “filmmaking” has flooded social media with slop derived from legitimate works that they now look fairly similar). It’s an unfortunate result of all these AI “movie” products.

Craig is fabulous as the queer Lee. He looks comfortable playing a gay character, having performed similar work previously in a London stage adaptation of Angels in America, as well as playing the flamboyant Benoit Blanc in Netflix’s Knives Out series of films. One can feel the stickiness of Lee’s profuse sweating as persistent and intense has his pain and longing for any reciprocation from Eugene. And the love scenes were deftly portrayed.

In contast, Eugene remains a cypher throughout. He is a symbol of the unattainable who never reveals his intentions nor his true self. He denies being gay to the end. Eugene the character feels underwritten, but like I said, I can’t be sure how similar or different he is from the book. Starkey didn’t have much to work on but is sufficient. Just like Lee, one wonders if there was more to Eugene than meets the eye.

Guadagnino seems to like telling these gay romances especially after Call Me By Your Name and the bisexually charged Challengers. But he has since Queer directed the unsatisfying After The Hunt, which also struggled with tedious storytelling. Queer is great when it’s only about Lee, but struggles narratively when trying to figure out who and what Eugene is. There is theatricality from the way scenes are composed to the way actors are framed or blocked. The miniature settings add to the air of artifice. We’re told that the place is in Mexico or Ecuador, but they could very well have been in the back lot of a studio. I’m not sure if Guadagnino was going for the 1950s Hollywood studio aesthetic (he probably was) since the story is set in that era.

Speaking of eras, crazy to think that a typical writer back then can survive drinking his way every night and have some money left for travel for work.

But I do get Lee’s pain. I could feel Lee’s longing and loneliness, as a middle aged person living by himself. And the prospect of passing alone and aged in a small room is almost a reality not just for me but many in this age of living alone.

In the end, it’s a tale that has been told many times over, because many gay men still grow old alone.

Queer is exclusively in Ayala Malls Cinemas June 10th. Images from Ayala Malls Cinemas.