Controversial director Luca Guadagnino adapts controversial author William S. Burroughs’ controversial novel for this controversial film.
How to watch Queer in New Zealand
Queer is screening in New Zealand cinemas from April 3, 2025.
Queer
What is Queer about?
We find ourselves in Mexico City, some time after World War II, in th company of dissolute, alcoholic, and gay expatriate American William Lee, Beat writer William S. Burroughs’ frequent stand-in. Lonely and lustful, Lee falls into a torrid affair with young GI Eugene Allerton. But Eugene holds himself aloof emotionally, and in a desperate bid to unlock the intimacy he craves, Lee drags him off on an odyssey through the jungles of South America in search of yagé, a hallucinogen said to unlock telepathic powers in the user. It’s all very lusty, sexy, drug-soaked, and steeped in unrequited yearning, with Guadagnino bringing Burroughs’ semi-confessional volume to vibrant life, underpinned by a sharp, wry and insightful script by Justin Kuritzkes (Challengers).
The cast of Queer
Former James Bond Daniel Craig is William Lee; Drew Starkey is Eugene Allerton; Jason Schwartzman is fellow expat Joe Guidry; Henrique Zagaias Winston Moor; Drew Droege is John Dumé; Lesley Manville is ethnobotanist Dr. Cotter; Ronia Ava is Joan Vollmer, William S. Burroughs’ real life wife; while Andra Ursuța, Ariel Schulman, Andrés Duprat, Omar Apollo, David Lowery (yes, the director of Pete’s Dragon), Lisandro Alonso, Michaël Borremans, Michael Kent, Colin Bates, and Lorenzo Pozzan round out the cast.
Queer trailer
Why we’re excited about Queer
While David Cronenberg’s Naked Lunch is likely to hold the top slot from now until the end of time, it’s been a minute since we had a Burroughs’ adaptation, and Guadagnino’s sensual cinema seems like a good fit for the late literary legend’s hallucinogenic prose. Daniel Craig is absolutely mesmerising as the Beat writer’s literary alter ego, and the whole thing pulses with life, love, and loss. A must see.
