Movie Review: Daniel Craig is a revelation in 'Queer,' a trippy tale of longing

One of the first real signs that “Queer” is going to be an unconventional movie is when Daniel Craig in a linen suit saunters through Mexico City during the early '50s and the soundtrack blasts a song by Nirvana.

It's a pretty nifty way to explain this story of a man unmoored by time, geography and himself. Craig plays William Lee, an American hiding out in Mexico who spends his time going from bar to bar, knocking back tequila or mescal.

Why is he hiding out? For one thing, he's a junkie and Mexico is more permissive about heroin use than the States at this time. He's also gay when being gay was abhorrent and Mexico was, again, more permissive. Lee is part of a wealthy expat contingent that fritters away the days stewed in liquor and gossip.

He doesn't just sound like a William S. Burroughs hero, he's partly Burroughs himself — “Queer” was a confessional novella written long before his breakthrough novel “Naked Lunch.” So buckle up. You're going to see some weird stuff.

“Queer” is best when it's a character study of Lee, who in Craig's hands is charming, selfish, arrogant, abrasive, foppish and sometimes unable to read a room. It's a million miles from 007, even if Lee carries a pistol. Craig allows us to see the yearning for real love that Lee numbs with shot glasses and needles. That Nirvana song is “Come as You Are.”

One day that real love suddenly appears in the form of the younger Eugene Allerton (a superb, icy Drew Starkey), who unlocks something in Lee. Could Eugene be the one to make Lee whole? Could they ride off into the sunset? Don't be silly. This is a Burroughs story.

Eugene is on-again, off-again, sometimes loving Lee and sometimes preferring a woman's company. Part of Eugene seems to dislike Lee or being seen with him. Lee's voracious need — shown with vigorous lovemaking scenes — is overpowering.

One scene has the two men walking down a street and Eugene subtly shakes off the older man's hand on his shoulder. “Is he a queer?” Lee asks a friend. “I can't tell.” One drunken night he approaches his source of adoration and confesses he wants to speak without speaking. He soon will try.

Director Luca Guadagnino and screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes, who teamed up for "Challengers," face enormous challenges in adapting Burroughs's words to the screen and yet they manage it, lyrically.

There is a single-take scene in which Lee assembles the equipment necessary to inject himself with heroin and the camera watches as he gets high, slowing his body down to become a sort of pathetic statue at the kitchen table.

Symbols — a wriggling bug, snakes and mirrors — combine with trippy techniques meant to show Lee's interior life, like his arm superimposed onto a scene tenderly touching his paramour when, in reality, it is hanging still. And there is a late moment of surreal beauty as the lovers climb into each other’s bodies, hands under the skin.

“Queer” — broken up into three chapters and an epilogue — gets trippier in the later stages, when Lee and Eugene leave Mexico in search of a South American plant that apparently gives users telepathic powers. Lee is clearly trying to find a shortcut into the soul, bypassing the messiness of human interactions. “You think it can fix things for you,” he is told.

But this part isn't well integrated with the first half, almost like a movie fragment, and the filmmakers fumble an attempt to deal with the death of Burroughs' wife, Joan Vollmer. Guadagnino seems to unnecessarily channel Stanley Kubrick as the movie wobbles to its end, with scenes filled with deafening sound, then pregnant silence and an artificial momentousness.

The score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is vibrant but it gets a chef's kiss with the addition of songs by Prince, New Order and Lydia Mendoza, mixed with contemporary songs by Benny Goodman, Eddie Cantor, Frankie Lane and Cole Porter.

The weight of it all comes down to Craig, and he's a wonder in a fedora, dirt stains on his linen pants. “Queer” is a reminder of how good an actor he is and how brave he can be — naked, needy and noxious. You'll be shaken and stirred.

“Queer,” a A24 release that hits theaters Wednesday, is rated R for “strong sexual content, graphic nudity, strong drug content, language and brief violence.” Running time: 135 minutes. Three stars out of four.

Daniel Craig, left, and Drew Starkey, cast members in the film "Queer," pose together for a portrait to promote the film on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

This image released by A24 shows Daniel Craig, left, and Drew Starkey in a scene from "Queer." (Yannis Drakoulidis/A24 via AP)

This image released by A24 shows Daniel Craig, left, and Leslie Manville in a scene from "Queer." (Yannis Drakoulidis/A24 via AP)

This image released by A24 shows Daniel Craig in a scene from "Queer." (Yannis Drakoulidis/A24 via AP)

This image released by A24 shows Daniel Craig, left, and Drew Starkey in a scene from "Queer." (Yannis Drakoulidis/A24 via AP)

This image released by A24 shows promotional art for the film "Queer." (Yannis Drakoulidis/A24 via AP)

This image released by A24 shows Daniel Craig, left, and Drew Starkey in a scene from "Queer." (Yannis Drakoulidis/A24 via AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are hanging near their records on Tuesday as Wall Street takes Donald Trump’slatest talk about tariffs in stride, even if they could roil the global economy were they to take effect.

The S&P 500 rose 0.4% in afternoon trading and was on track to squeak past its all-time high set a couple weeks ago. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 49 points, or 0.1%, from its own record set the day before, while the Nasdaq composite was 0.6% higher, as of 1:04 p.m. Eastern time.

Stock markets abroad were down, but mostly only modestly, after President-elect Trump said he plans to impose sweeping new tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China as soon as he takes office. Stock indexes were down 0.1% in Shanghai and nearly flat in Hong Kong, while Canada's main index was down 0.2%.

Trump has often praised the use of tariffs, but investors are weighing whether his latest threat will actually become policy or is just an opening point for negotiations. For now, the market seems to be taking it more as the latter.

Unless the United States can prepare alternatives for the autos, energy products and other goods that come from Mexico, Canada and China, such tariffs would raise the price of imported items all at once and make households poorer, according to Carl Weinberg and Rubeela Farooqi, economists at High Frequency Economics. They would also hurt profit margins for U.S. companies, while raising the threat of retaliatory tariffs by other countries.

General Motors sank 8.3%, and Ford Motor fell 2.2%. Constellation Brands, which sells Modelo and other Mexican beers in the United States, dropped 3.8%.

Beyond the pain such tariffs would cause U.S. households and businesses, they could also push the Federal Reserve to slow or even halt its cuts to interest rates. The Fed had just begun cutting its main interest rate from a two-decade high a couple months ago to offer support to the job market. While lower interest rates can boost the overall economy and prices for investments, they can also offer more fuel for inflation.

Unlike tariffs in Trump's first term, his proposal from Monday night would affect products across the board.

Trump’s tariff talk came almost immediately after U.S. stocks rose Monday amid excitement about his pick for Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent. The hope was the hedge-fund manager could steer Trump away from policies that balloon the U.S. government deficit, which is how much more it spends than it takes in through taxes and other revenue.

The talk about tariffs overshadowed another set of mixed profit reports from U.S. retailers that answered few questions about how much more shoppers can keep spending. They’ll need to stay resilient after helping the economy avoid a recession, despite the high interest rates instituted by the Fed to get inflation under control.

Kohl’s tumbled 16.6% after its results for the latest quarter fell short of analysts’ expectations. CEO Tom Kingsbury said sales remain soft for apparel and footwear, which helped drag its revenue lower. Kingsbury said a day earlier that he plans to step down as CEO in January. Ashley Buchanan, CEO of Michaels and a retail veteran, will replace him.

Best Buy fell 6.9% after likewise falling short of analysts’ expectations. Dick’s Sporting Goods topped forecasts for the latest quarter thanks to a strong back-to-school season, but its stock lost an early gain to fall 0.3%.

A report on Tuesday from the Conference Board said confidence among U.S. consumers improved in November, but not by as much as economists expected.

J.M. Smucker jumped 4.6% for one of the biggest gains in the S&P 500 after topping analysts' expectations for the latest quarter. CEO Mark Smucker credited strength for its Uncrustables, Meow Mix, Café Bustelo and Jif brands.

Big Tech stocks also helped prop up U.S. indexes. Gains of 2.4% for Amazon and 1.9% for Microsoft were two of the strongest forces lifting the S&P 500.

In the bond market, Treasury yields rose following their big drop from a day before driven by relief following Trump’s pick for Treasury secretary.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to 4.31% from 4.28% late Monday, but it’s still well below the 4.41% level where it ended last week.

In the crypto market, bitcoin continued to pull back after topping $99,000 for the first time late last week. It's since dipped back toward $93,500, according to CoinDesk.

It’s a sharp turnaround from the bonanza that had earlier taken over the crypto market following Trump’s election. That boom had also appeared to have spilled over into some corners of the stock market. Strategists at Barclays Capital pointed to stocks of unprofitable companies, along with other areas that can be caught up in bursts of optimism by smaller-pocketed “retail” investors.

AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.

People walk past the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday, Nov. 26 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)

FILE - People work on the New York Stock Exchange trading floor in New York on November 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)

People walk in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

People walk in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A person walks in front of the Tokyo Stock Exchange building at a securities firm Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A person walks in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A person walks in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A person walks in front of an electronic stock board showing part of Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)