KT 102.5: Queer (Luca Guadagnino, 2024)
We review the world's most prolific auteur's latest work
In what is turning into one of our busiest months on record, this Thursday we present pieces on two films that were beloved upon their festival debuts on Lido Island (Venice FF) but may not have found the same adulation upon arriving in Australia.
This week, Zari Moss discusses the Nicole Kidman-starrer Babygirl, and Eddie Hampson explores Guadagnino’s adaptation of Burroughs’ Queer.
Queer
Luca Guadagnino, 2024
DCP Courtesy: Madman Ent.
Classification: MA 15+
Screening in most arthouse cinemas and some mainstream
Words by Eddie Hampson
All the melancholy, desperation and shame that hides within the closet is unleashed by Luca Guadagnino in Queer but once it’s all turned inside out it comes across as empty of the promise it seemed to offer.
At the horny hour you might go to a bar, maybe scratch around the smokers section of a club, or more likely than not you’ll hop on that damn phone. That’s the way we combat isolation and desperation: scroll, tap, message and — just like that – fuck. Living in cosmopolitan cityscapes, sex can be instant. Queer, after all, is the old time term for gay though it later came to encompass every kind of sex that was not straight and performed in missionary position. In any case, now it arrives like Uber Eats with an especially exciting package at the door. What’s the risk in that?
In the film Queer which adapts the novel by William S. Burroughs (most famous for The Naked Lunch) the American expats Lee (Daniel Craig) and Eugene (Drew Starkey) explore and experiment with sex and drugs in the sleazy bars of 1950’s Mexico City. But sex on a whim is a luxury and a long way from the world of this film with its covert sneaking around at great risk which is spotlighted so remorselessly in mutation of Queer. So what we get is Craig as Lee stalking and stumbling through the neighborhood in search of intimacy until his desperation implodes into addiction.
Like jazz in a dark light the camera floats along eerie stony streets lit by the familiar glowing signs of nightlife. And inside the bars the bits of colour are warm beyond any point of coziness; the quality they have is a sweaty, shining gloss that expresses the artificiality of Lee’s routine — and just how much his suspicion and temptation hide beneath the gestures of friendly conversation. The contrasting tones delineate the spatial lines upon which queerness is policed or tolerated in this setting and stands as reminders of how these lines are forever being redrawn.
Rooms by the hour are soft, dim and red – designed for heroine and head – but Guadagnino turns his nose up at these indulgences with alternate repulsion and detachment. Lee and Eugene are not in love but they’re trying something new. Isn’t this what it’s all about? Queerness is experimentation — that’s part of what defines it — and like the score it’s left an unsettled, constantly shifting mood at the whim of feeling.
Guadagnino doesn’t find his points so the upshot is a film that loses its potential power of truth. How this film dramatically falls apart is especially clear in the drug induced hallucinations of dead babies and murder – the beginning of the movement towards a nightmare ending.
It’s interesting that the Amazon becomes a central location in Queer. The opposition of what is natural and what is queer is historically important to this story. E.M. Forster certainly grapples with breaking down the contrasted duality, the version of this binary in Maurice 70 years before Burroughs’ novel was published in 1985. In that Cambridge University romance the boys find their true selves and an acceptance of their sexuality when they escape to the countryside where they can be intimate in seclusion and safety. It is in the midst of nature that they self-actualise their homosexuality. In Guadagnino’s film of Burroughs’ Queer it’s in the dense rainforest that the pair drink ayahuasca and in Lee’s hallucinations his older body mutates and metamorphoses into Eugene’s young and lean figure. This particular scene jumps around madly. The camera ricochets around their bodies transfiguring and mutating, pulling them apart until Lee freefalls through open air just above the water of the Amazon. Alone he lands on a beach. All Lee’s chasing of the high has finally eroded his attachment to Eugene so that he is ungrounded and loses his bearings. You realise quite how bleak this story is when Eugene doesn't resurface from the depths of the rainforest.
And how it reeks of odious emptiness, Daniel Craig’s performance as an old, sweaty, rambling yank slipping into addiction. It is a shallow display of acting where Craig either stutters and mutters or bellows and shouts. His fluctuations are too erratic and the characterisation feels underdeveloped to the point of phoniness, it has no human truth at all. Without any psychological grey areas any complex play of move, Craig’s gross physicality and verbose declamation at the would be emotional heights hits you as if you’ve taken the wrong pill all at once without any exciting come up where it all coheres together. In the end the film tries to insist that Lee is changed yet his character remains the same combination of unreal rhetorics juggling in vein to carry conviction.
Drew Starkey is a serviceable sheet for Craig’s projection of the character’s desires but you get the strongest feeling that what you are trying to see behind Starkey’s eyes is not obscured emotion but a stagey ambiguity steeped in hollowness. Jason Schwartzman is also buoyant, sometimes lifting the film out of its muddy confusions and the remarkable Lesley Manville adds colour and classiness as a gritty mad scientist
Guadagnino is a master of style and the high aesthetics of cinema which he has proven time and again. Recall everything from Tilda Swinton draped in Jil Sander and frozen in delectation to ‘The Great Wide Open’ feeling of vast skies blanketing loneliness in Bones and All. Yet, this most recent film is punchy to the point of knockout and its intimations of depth are seldom enacted. Queer is all dressed up with nowhere to go.
Listings | Thursday 20 Feb - Wednesday 26 Feb
Notable Screenings
Grand Theft Hamlet
Sam Crane & Pinny Grylls, 2024
Screening Tonight (Sold Out)
Anna Kipervaser: in person with AFW
See AFW listing below
Gay24 (FREE)
Lesbian Avengers Eat Fire Too
Su Friedrich & Janet Baus, 1993
+
Transexual Menace
Rosa von Praunheim, 1996
Screening at Flippy’s on Wed 26 Feb at 7.30pm
The General (with live score)
Buster Keaton, 1926
Screening Sun 23 at TPH
Inside Q&A
Charles Williams, 2024
Mon 24 at Pentridge
Wild at Heart (FREE)
David Lynch, 1990
Screening Wed 26 at Misc
New Films in Release
Bird
Andrea Arnold, 2024
Screening Daily
The Last Showgirl
Gia Coppola, 2024
Screening Daily
Grand Theft Hamlet
Sam Crane & Pinny Grylls, 2024
Screening Tonight (Sold Out)
Short Film Visions
Discovery Shorts
Various directors, 20224
Screening Thurs 20
Experimental Shorts
Various directors, 20224
Screening Fri 21
Comedy Shorts
Various directors, 20224
Screening Sat 22
Narrative Shorts
Various directors, 20224
Screening Sat 22
Documentary Shorts
Various directors, 20224
Screening Sat 23
Focus on David Lynch
Blue Velvet
David Lynch, 1986
Screening Fri 21
The Elephant Man
David Lynch, 1980
Screening Fri 22
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
David Lynch, 1992
Screening Sunday 16
Lost Highway
David Lynch, 1997
Screening Fri Mon 24
Matinees
Red Island
Robin Campillo, 2023
Screening Fri to Sat
No screening this week
Anna Kipervaser: in person with AFW
With The Tide, with the tide
2022 | 16mm | sound | 2:49
Next Her Heart
2023 | 16mm | sound | 12:00
And By The Night
2017 | 16mm | silent | 9:45
Бабушка Галя и Дедушка Аркадий // Grandma Galya and Grandpa Arkadiy
2023 | 16mm | sound | 4:25
The Order of Revelation: 23-30
2017 | 16mm | silent | 28:00
8pm Tuesday 25th February
The Brunswick Green, 313/315 Sydney Rd, Brunswick.
16mm projection. $10 at the door.
Here’s your corrected listing with directors and years added:
Mulholland Drive
David Lynch, 2001
Screening Thurs 20, Tues 25
Nemesis - Oliver Gruner Live
Albert Pyun, 1992
Screening Fri 21
Lost Highway
David Lynch, 1997
Screening Fri 21
Eraserhead
David Lynch, 1977
Screening Fri 21 (Midnight), Sat 22
The Short Films of David Lynch
David Lynch, Various
Screening Sat 22
Dune
David Lynch, 1984
Screening Sat 22
Blue Velvet
David Lynch, 1986
Screening Sat 22, Wed 26
The Straight Story
David Lynch, 1999
Screening Sun 23
Inland Empire
David Lynch, 2006
Screening Mon 24
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
David Lynch, 1992
Screening Tues 25
Wild at Heart
David Lynch, 1990
Screening Wed 26
BBBC CINEMA (GALLERYGALLERY BRUNSWICK)
Closed until further notice
Best Films You’ve Never Seen
Seven Samurai
Akira Kurusawa, 1954
Screening Tues 25
CHINATOWN CINEMA
Ne Zha 2
Yang Yu, 2025
Screening Daily
Legends of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants
Tsui Hark, 2025
Screening on the weekend only
Creation of the Gods II: Demonic Confrontation
Wuershan, 2025
Screening Daily
Coming back in some variety soon
No screening this week
Events / Previews
Every Little Thing
Sally Aitken
Q&A screening Fri 21 Feb
I’m Still Here (Advance Screenings)
Walter Sallas, 2024
Previewing Fri- Sun
The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Advance Screenings)
Mohammad Rasoulof
Previewing Fri- Sun
The Last Journey (Advance Screenings)
Filip Hammar, Fredrik Wikingsson, 2024
Previewing Fri- Sun
Hard Truths (Advance Screenings)
Mike Leigh, 2024
Previewing Fri- Sun
Inside (Advance Screenings)
Charles Williams, 2024
Previewing Fri- Sun
Release
Bird
Andrea Arnold, 2024
Screening Fri, Sat, Sun
The Last Showgirl
Gia Coppola, 2024
Screening Daily
Soundtrack to a Coup D ‘État
Johan Grimonprez, 2024
Screening Daily
Black Box Diaries
Shiori Ito, 2024
Screening Daily
Grand Tour
Miguel Gomes, 2024
Screening Daily
Queer
Luca Guadanigno, 2024
Screening Daily
Babygirl
Halina Reijn, 2024
Screening Daily
A Complete Unknown
James Mangold, 2024
Screening Daily
The Brutalist
Brady Corbet, 2024
Screening Daily
Maria
Pablo Larraín, 2025
Screening Daily
Presence
Steven Soderbergh, 2025
Screening Daily
Becoming Led Zeppelin
Bernard MacMahon, 2025
Screening Daily
Conclave
Edward Berger, 2024
Screening Daily
September 5
Tim Fehlbaum, 2025
Screening Daily
Nosferatu
David Eggers, 2024
Screening Daily
Anora
Sean Baker, 2024
Screening Daily
We Live in Time
John Crowley, 2024
Screening Daily (Excl Friday)
Sing Sing
Greg Kwedar, 2025
Screening Daily
Emilia Perez
Jacques Audiard, 2025
Screening Daily
Better Man
Michael Gracey, 2024
Screening Daily
All We Imagine As Light
Payal Kapadia, 2024
Screening Daily
The Room Next Door
Pedro Almodóvar, 2024
Screening Mon-Wed, Thu, Fri
Wicked
John M. Chu, 2024
Screening Thurs, Sun-Wed
Heretic
Scott Beck, Bryan Woods, 2024
Screening Daily (Excl Sunday)
A Different Man
Aaron Schimberg, 2024
Screening Mondays
Memoir of a Snail
Adam Elliot, 2024
Screening Daily
Memory
Michel Franco, 2023
Screening Daily
There’s Still Tomorrow
Paola Cortellesi, 2024
Screening Daily
The Substance
Coralie Fargeat, 2024
Screening Daily
Kneecap
Rich Peppiatt, 2023
Screening Daily
DOGMILK DEGUSTATIONS: @ Miscellania
No screening this week
No screening this week
GAY24 (Bar Flippy’s)
Lesbian Avengers Eat Fire Too
Su Friedrich & Janet Baus, 1993
+
Transexual Menace
Rosa von Praunheim, 1996
Screening at Flippy’s on Wed 26 Feb at 7.30pm
HITLIST (9 Gertrude St, Fitzroy)
No screening this week
LIDO / CLASSIC / CAMEO
Events
Europa! Europa! Film Festival
Lido and Classic Cinemas
Program here
General Release
Bird
Andrea Arnold, 2024
Screening Daily
The Last Showgirl
Gia Coppola, 2024
Screening Daily
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy
Michael Morris, 2025
Screening Daily
A Complete Unknown
James Mangold, 2024
Screening Daily
Queer
Luca Guadanigno, 2024
Screening Daily
Babygirl
Halina Reijn, 2024
Screening Daily
Grand Tour
Miguel Gomes, 2024
Screening Daily
Widow Clicquot
Paul Verhoeven, 2023
Screening Daily
Conclave
Edward Berger, 2024
Screening Daily
The Brutalist
Brady Corbet, 2024
Screening Daily
Nosferatu
David Eggers, 2024
Screening Daily
Anora
Sean Baker, 2024
Screening Daily
We Live in Time
John Crowley, 2024
Screening Daily
A Real Pain
Jesse Eisenberg, 2024
Screening Daily
Emilia Perez
Jacques Audiard, 2025
Screening Daily
OVA CLUB
No screening this week
David Lynch Retrospective
Wild at Heart (FREE)
David Lynch, 1990
Screening Wed 26
Program from 7pm | Screening from 8.30pm
THE MELBOURNE CINÉMATHÈQUE (ACMI)
Come Drink with Me
King Hu, 1966
Screening from 7pm
+
The Fate of Lee Khan
King Hu, 1973
Screening from 8.50pm
MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY: SCREENING IDEAS
No screening this week
PALACE BALWYN / BRIGHTON / COMO / KINO / PENTRIDGE / MOONEE PONDS / WESTGARTH
Events / Previews
Mulholland Drive
David Lynch, 2001
Screening at most Palace cinemas on Feb 20 and 25
Inside Q&A
Charles Williams, 2024
Mon 24 at Pentridge
I’m Still here
Walter Salles, 2024
Previewing at all Palace sites on Feb 26
Hard Truths
Mike Leigh, 2024
Previewing at all Palace sites on Feb 26 (cheaper for members)
General Release
Bird
Andrea Arnold, 2024
Screening Daily
The Last Showgirl
Gia Coppola, 2024
Screening Daily
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy
Michael Morris, 2025
Screening Daily
A Complete Unknown
James Mangold, 2024
Screening Daily
Queer
Luca Guadanigno, 2024
Screening Daily
Babygirl
Halina Reijn, 2024
Screening Daily
Grand Tour
Miguel Gomes, 2024
Screening Daily
Widow Clicquot
Paul Verhoeven, 2023
Screening Daily
Presence
Steven Soderbergh, 2025
Screening Daily
We Live in Time
John Crowley, 2024
Screening Daily
Conclave
Edward Berger, 2024
Screening Daily
Nosferatu
David Eggers, 2024
Screening Daily
Emilia Perez
Jacques Audiard, 2025
Screening Daily
Anora
Sean Baker, 2024
Screening Daily
A Real Pain
Jesse Eisenberg, 2024
Screening Daily
Better Man
Michael Gracey, 2024
Screening Daily
Wicked
John M. Chu, 2024
Screening Daily
The Room Next Door
Pedro Almodóvar, 2024
Screening Daily (Kino)
Paddington in Peru
Dougal Wilson, 2024
Screening Daily
All We Imagine As Light
Payal Kapadia, 2024
Screening Daily (Kino)
Next screening in early March
The Last Showgirl
Gia Coppola, 2024
Screening Daily
Bird
Andrea Arnold, 2024
Screening all days but Fri
A Complete Unknown
James Mangold, 2024
Screening Sat
The General (with live score)
Buster Keaton, 1926
Screening Sun 23
Becoming Led Zeppelin
Bernard MacMahon, 2025
Screening Fri and wed
UNKNOWN PLEASURES @ Thornbury Picture House
No screening this week