Daniel Craig obliterates James Bond legacy with remarkable turn in sweaty and baffling Queer-Tori Brazier at Venice Film Festival-Entertainment – Metro

007 no more: Daniel Craig is utterly transformed in Queer (Picture: A24 via AP)

James Bond has been left behind in the dust by Daniel Craig from the opening moment of Luca Guadagnino’s Queer, which is one of the most hotly anticipated premieres at the 2024 Venice Film Festival.

‘You’re not queer,’ he insists to his young and be-freckled companion sitting opposite him in a Mexico City bar in the 1950s – and in the following instances several things become clear.

Firstly, long gone is the laconic and confident Bond, replaced instead by a jittery, awkward and somewhat desperate soul.

Craig’s character William Lee’s neuroses and addictions are plain to see from the off – he knocks back drink after drink, in a constant state of sweaty day-drunk, as he searches for love and affection alongside his next line of cocaine or dose of dope.

The cards are stacked against him as a gay man in that time period, as well as an American expat who had to flee his home country after a drug bust. But Lee has at least found a community of fellow homosexuals who live life in the open (including a vibrant if bitter Jason Schwartzman) – even if happiness eludes them.

However, his attention is permanently distracted when young student Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey) arrives, stirring a strong infatuation within him as Lee anxiously attempts to woo him.

Craig stars as a lovesick expat opposite Drew Starkey as he younger object of affection (Picture: A24 via AP)

We all know Craig is an actor more than capable of turning in performances far removed from 007, but there’s something about the physicality of his Lee that is especially impressive – and I don’t just mean the much whispered-about sex scenes.

The way he can’t help himself but sweep into a cringe-inducing bow, doffing his hat, when he first spies Allerton’s gaze speaks volumes about his character. And then in the same way, his hallucinogenic-fuelled dance routine with his lover is totally different, but equally mesmerising.

His and Starkey’s sex scenes are incredibly intimate in their choreography, covering the fumbles and shy foreplay of getting to know someone before getting down to business. That he’s not sure if Allerton returns his ardour ends up being heartbreaking.

Craig is fully committed to baring himself in this role – and the Oscar talk is well deserved, as well as awards attention being almost inevitable, given how Hollywood can’t resist a bold transformation.

Director Luca Guadagnino is back after his success with Challengers – and brings something very different (Picture: Reuters)

However, it can be argued that Craig is doing a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to Queer because, without him, the murkiness of its storyline – which becomes harder to penetrate – doesn’t necessarily leave behind a film from Guadagnino that stirs as much excitement as expected.

Would we care as much if Craig wasn’t in the leading role?

The filmmaker already had one of the hits of 2024 with Challengers making a bona fide movie star out of Zendaya – but when he already has one to hand in Queer, the surrounding material – penned by Challengers Justin Kuritzes – seems to swamped in the mythology of its author William S. Burroughs.

It’s a pleasing touch for Kuritzes to have infused the film adaptation of Queer with even more of Burroughs’ own life, such as his gun collection, but the addition of a third act when Lee and Allerton hunt down ayahuasca in South America will lose many viewers.

Would we care as much about Queer without Craig leading the cast? (Pictured with wife Rachel Weisz at the film’s Venice premiere) (Picture: Daniele Venturelli/WireImage)

Mentioned but not explored in the original short novel, this addition to the film seems like an entirely separate movie in and off itself, that struggles to attach itself to what came before.

Here is where Lesley Manville pops up as Dr Cotter, reimagined into a female character for the film, and an ayahuasca expert who lives in the rainforest of Ecuador.

Wearing loose long johns and with slicked black hair, she takes the pair on a confusing trip that involves moves that get under one another’s skins and a moment of quite gross surprise body horror (you have been warned).

While the end then links up with hallucinations we assume Lee was having earlier on, things have moved into a very meta territory from what started as a period historical romance drama, sweaty and nicely evocative of the times.

It’s like two movies have been mashed together and the audience needs to work pretty hard to join the dots. Burroughs fans may well be delighted, but as far as mainstream audiences go, it might be an ask too far.

For fans hoping for anything like Guadagnino’s awards darling Call Me By Your Name, Queer certainly starts that way – if slowly – before morphing into an at-times utterly baffling movie.

Queer premiered at Venice Film Festival on September 3. Its UK release date is yet to be announced.

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