Queer

Even as it gets really surreal towards the end, Queer remains a deeply empathetic work centring on a relationship where one person's affection massively outweighs the other. It definitely feels it's run time thanks to long chapters but always remains investing across all four chapters. It's on a very specific wavelength from the start that you'll either get with or completely bounce off.

Daniel Craig is excellent as a lovelorn romantic. He's extroverted yet so lonely which makes his desire to find a partner in Drew Starkey all the more tragic when he keeps going despite Starkey's indifference. Starkey himself is an enigma as he's a man of few words with just enough hints to keep Craig going. In the supporting cast Jason Schwartzman is a lot of fun and Lesley Manville is completely unrecognisable.

Luca Guadagnino's direction captures yearning so beautifully in dirty, sweaty fashion, enhanced by the colourful locations and Jonathan Anderson's stylishly era appropriate costumes. The score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is a nice mix of their usual work and some new elements and the soundtrack is an unexpected highlight with a collection of songs that go way beyond the time period it's set in and still work so well.