Luca Guadagnino's Adaptation of William Burroughs's 'Queer' Captures the Novel's Essence

 

William Lee (Daniel Craig) and Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey) share a drink in a Mexico City watering hole.

William Burroughs's 1985 Novella is about a one-sided longing; a formula the Director changes slightly to great effect

William Burroughs was a difficult man to pin down. Born to a wealthy family in St. Louis, Missouri, he was the grandson of the Inventor who founded the Burroughs Corporation. He was also a nephew of public relations manager Ivy Lee.

When Burroughs was denied admission to the U.S. Army to serve in the Second World War, he began experimenting with drugs. Around this time he also met poet Allen Ginsberg, and fellow writer Jack Kerouac. Together the three of them would become the leading lights of the Beat Generation.

In 1985 Burroughs published a novella titled Queer. At its' heart the novella is a one-sided love story. William 'Bill' Lee haunts Mexico City's gay bars in the early 1950s, looking for sexual partners. When he finds a man he particularly likes, one Eugene Allerton, he pays for Allerton's time and eventually invites him on an expedition to South America to find the hallucinogenic drug Ayahuasca, which Lee is interested in because of its' potential to facilitate Telepathy.

Queer was written, as Burroughs revealed in an introduction to the novel, partly in response to the death of his wife Joan Vollmer. She was tragically shot by Burroughs in September 1951 during a drunken game of William Tell. This event is referenced twice in the movie.

Director Luca Guadagnino (Call Me by Your Name, Challengers) has made a wonderful adaptation of the novella, which mostly adheres to the source material it's based upon.

Daniel Craig does a fantastic job of interpreting the character of William Lee, who is, of course, Burroughs himself. The twitchiness, the southern drawl, the barely concealed neediness (partly a byproduct of Lee's Heroin withdrawal). It's a performance that's less imitation than a sort of becoming. We first meet Lee in one of Mexico City's gay bars where he is picking up a local.

Fans of Burroughs's fiction will note the man's Centipede necklace. Centipedes were something of an obsession for Burroughs, turning up in several of his novels. It can be interpreted as someone who is consumed by pleasure seeking or an individual who has succumbed to his most base impulses. 

Given the movie's title, it's no surprise that Lee's biggest impulse is to spend time (and eventually have sex with) Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey). He's a damn attractive man, and is the film's human question mark. We never learn much about what makes Allerton tick. He is not given to speaking very much about himself. 

When the two aren't having sex, they are usually drinking in one watering hole or another. Allerton being an audience for one of Lee's many comic monologues. These monologues are lifted verbatim from the novel, and are one of the film's real treats. 

As the movie progresses, Lee invites Allerton to accompany him on a trip to South America, where he is searching for Ayahuasca, or Yagé. Once there, they track down Dr. Cotter, a wonderfully unhinged Lesley Manville. She eventually assists Lee with finding what he seeks.

Following a ceremony in which Lee, Allerton, Dr. Cotter and her husband all drink an infusion of Yagé, there is a lovely dance scene. It's a special moment because it suggests there is some reciprocity in Lee and Allerton's relationship. The 'mirror' of the drug shows both of them together, intertwined. 

 

It's a lovely touch.

For William Burroughs fans, this is one you'll want to see. My only criticism is how the ending dragged on. It could have been shortened to conform with where the novella ended, and the impact would have been the same.