Key words: biography, drama, history
Duration: 2h 17m
Brilliant, audacious author, meet brilliant, audacious director: it takes risk to translate the work of William S. Burroughs for the screen, but Oscar-nominated filmmaker Luca Guadagnino’s (Call Me by Your Name, TIFF ’17) spin on the Beat legend’s autobiographical novel matches its source material in vulnerability and taboo-smashing adventurousness. Starring Daniel Craig (Knives Out, TIFF ’19) and featuring supporting turns from Jason Schwartzman (Quiz Lady, TIFF ’23) and Oscar nominee Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread), Queer is a hallucinogenic odyssey bathed in desire.
Lee (Craig) mingles with the expatriate set in postwar Mexico City, wandering its streets, frequenting its gay bars, and ingesting whatever illicit substances are available. He is a consummate raconteur who has no trouble finding an audience, but he is also a desperately lonely, middle-aged addict with an alarming fondness for guns. Early in Queer, Lee sets his sights on a journey to the Amazon in search of the potentially telepathic ayahuasca — and he wants handsome young bi-curious Oklahoman Allerton (Drew Starkey, The Hate U Give, TIFF ’18) to accompany him. Their travels will yield a string of unexpected encounters and provide Lee with sobering lessons in what Burroughs dubbed “the algebra of need.”
Adapted by Justin Kuritzkes (who wrote Guadagnino’s Challengers), Queer is both faithful to the book and a radical re-imagining. Period detail is offset by anachronistic musical choices, while an eerie epilogue alludes to the real-life tragedy that prompted Burroughs’ writing career. Through it all, Craig makes Lee his own, creating a fully lived-in protagonist whose unruly obsessions lead to something akin to enlightenment.
In addition, we invite everyone to visit the exhibition, On Fragile Grounds. Sirje Runge and Light, at the Kai Art Center on the same day. Sirje Runge is one of the central figures of Estonian postwar art. The exhibition traces Runge’s lifelong exploration of light, color, and perception, from her geometric experiments of the 1970s to recent large-scale projects, and reconstructs her pioneering teaching practice. If you visit both the cinema and the exhibition on the same day, you will receive a discount (15/10).
Country: Italy, USA
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Cast: Daniel Craig, Daan de Wit, Jason Schwartzman, Drew Starkey
Language: english, spanish, frensh
Subtitle Language: estonian
Distributor: Must Käsi 2 OÜ
Kai Art Center • Peetri tänav 12, 10415 Tallinn, Harju maakond, Estonia