Queer (2024)

 

This was one of the few movies I went to see in the theater by myself. The last one before this was Batman v. Superman (2016). And before that...I can't even remember one. But I really wanted to see this, and didn't want to wait for it to come out on a streaming service. I was pretty blown away by the movie. Then at the end, there's a scene where Daniel Craig walks into an empty hotel room and looks into a tiny model of the hotel that he's in and sees himself walking around. At that point the screen went black, strobe lights started flashing, and I thought, "That is the weirdest ending to a movie I have ever encountered." Turns out it was a fire alarm, and I had to leave the theater without watching the final couple of minutes of the movie. When it finally came out on HBO I watched those final minutes. It was literally just a couple of minutes, and nothing really substantial happened, but I did feel a sense of completion, nonetheless.

Then I decided to read the novel, which I did in 3 days, and there were so many points of interest for me: things that changed my understanding of the movie and things that were left out of the movie and things that were added to the movie... that I decided I needed to watch the movie again. I did, and I found it to be incredibly intense. I have to admit that some of the homoeroticism made me uncomfortable, but behind that the power of the depiction of obsession and yearning really moved me. The director did some pretty brilliant things to bring William Lee's feelings to the screen, and I could only conclude that this was a great movie. And that I would be watching it again pretty darn soon.

I was also really impressed by Daniel Craig. I have always liked him, but his acting in this movie was far beyond anything I have seen from him before. And it was a brave role for him to take on. He risked alienating most or even all of the audience that had made him famous and wealthy. My hat is definitely off to him.

 🎩 

P.S. Although there are some very strong homerotic moments, there are only two brief scenes where penises are seen, and they're just hanging limply and nothing is done to or by them.