Queer

I was deeply moved by Call Me by Your Name; suffice to say, it left a lasting impact on me. As a heterosexual myself, I never anticipated that a love story between two individuals of the same sex could resonate so profoundly. It opened a doorway for me and inspired me to delve deeper into other LGBTQ stories.

Regrettably, I cannot extend the same level of admiration to "Queer."

While the performances by Craig and Starkey are commendable, their characters or rather the storytelling at core did not resonate with me. Intricacies of the relationship too failed to evoke the kind of emotional response I was expecting.

However, the final thirty minutes of the film provides an extraordinary experience, offering a sense of catharsis that is quite experimental, even for a filmmaker like Luca Guadagnino, who often deviates from traditional narratives.

The main reason is that the film was too abstract and seemed like a stream of consciousness. The general meaning is to explore the loneliness in the queer heart, the difficulty in establishing connections with others, the pain of not being able to love, and the complex emotions of depression. But the performance technique is very stream-of-consciousness, especially the last 20 minutes, which have almost no lines and are completely used to express the inner world of the male protagonist through various blurs, hallucinations, and abstract art forms. Although I understood what the director wanted to express, the form of expression may not be acceptable to the public, and I wanted to leave the scene at one point.

Though I loved 'Call me by your name', and definitely love Daniel Craig in a lot of movies this one is different and not in a good way. It actually took me quite some time to finish it, for me it felt it took way to long and at times lost my interest completely.

The way they tell the story and use metaphors for a lot of things, just didnt do it for me with this movie.

Some parts of the story are to long and boring imo and just dont grab me the way they should. And a lot of times it feels a bit weird, strange or a bit to typical.

The good thing about this is the performance of Daniel Craig and Drew Starkey.

Queer

Based on a short story by William Burroughs this movie explored the dissolute life of middled aged William Lee, who spent his time frequenting the gay bars in downtown Mexico City. It really was a simple romantic movie that looked at an infatuation with innocence and a journey to recovery from drug addiction.

The story, such as it was was tissue thin, very little happened by way of action, and we had inserted numerous dream sequences and fantasy elements that reflected in an emotional turmoil.

Overall I can't recommend this movie. It was at best of 5 out of 10. I enjoyed it whilst I was watching it but it really had very little substance. Despite some very strong acting from the central leads much of the dialogue was banal and tedious.

I'm all for using movies to evoke some type of emotion but this movie took that quite literally by combining random images with random music and hoping we feel what the director felt. There's almost no connection between anything. It's like the writer took a bunch of pills, got high, and wrote the script. Then the director and the whole cast smoked a ton of weed and then made this. Whatever this is.

Trust me, I know very well what the director was going for. I'm gay. I know all about the queer culture, how lonely it is, and how we all long for a lasting connection with someone much younger and hotter than us. This movie makes that very clear. And I love that it explored that. But why was it necessary to get high to do that?? The whole thing feels like a hallucination trip. There is minimal dialog. There are looooooong scenes with no dialog at all. Sometimes for 5-10 minutes. We're just staying on a close up of someone's face or watching them perform an action but ultimately nothing is happening on screen except for some subtle movement which is just not enough to keep you engaged or interested.

Thank god I watched this at home and I could fast forward. Many times I skipped forward 20-30 seconds and it was STILL the same exact shot on screen. That's crazy!! That's not movie making. That's not a masterpiece. You're not being some kind of genius by boring us to death. You can't just play an upbeat tempo song for 5 minutes and show us one shot and think that will do the trick.

As far as the acting goes... I can't believe Daniel Craig did this. I'm talking full nudity, full on gay sex, tons of making out... the whole 9 yards.

The Mexico setting was a complete miss in this one. It did not fit the theme at all. The sets were ridiculous. They were very well made but just completely wrong for this movie.

I was a huge fan of Call me By Your Name but I think this might have been the last Luca movie I'll ever see. At least for a while. My time was completely wasted.