Rent Queer (2024)

Craig is sensational but this film goes from brilliant to exasperating navel-gazing tripe - Queer review by Timmy B

It is a tradition, certainly from Timothy Dalton onwards, for actors who have played 007 to, once they hang up the Walther, take roles which are the complete polar opposite from James Bond. Pierce in particular starred in everything from Mamma Mia to playing a disgraced ex-Prime Minister in The Ghost Writer. Daniel Craig has continued the tradition, shocking many people with some of his choices, which always makes me laugh, because those people clearly didn't see any of his pre-007 work. Craig was similar to Ewan McGregor, in that many of his early parts were in extremely provocative films such as Love Is The Devil & The Mother. So you can imagine the reaction from certain people when they watch him in graphic gay love scenes...

William Lee is a middle-aged man living in Mexico City in the 1950's. He is openly gay & spends his days drinking the bars dry, whilst desperately trying to bed every man he meets, not only for pleasure but also to try and find a connection to the aching loneliness he feels, a void he also fills with heroin. Into this malaise comes Eugene Allerton, an impossibly-chiseled & handsome GI, who Lee begins to pursue with increasing desperation.

As much as I loved him in Casino Royale & Skyfall, I honestly think that this is Craig's best performance. The inner turmoil & anguish that courses through every part of Lee is flawlessly realised. Within 10 minutes, you feel you know everything about Lee, whilst his pain & isolation bleeds out of the screen. And matching him in many ways, Drew Starkey is excellent as Gene, not just playing the sultry heartthrob, but a young man just starting out in life, experimenting with his sexuality without fear, but still a sense of loss.

The first half of the film is flawless, shot at Cinecittà Studios. It is a given that Luca Guadagnino can craft scenes that look, sound & feel so authentic you could be sat in the bar next to Lee, smelling the cigarette smoke and hard liquor. The sets would make Kubrick jealous & the characters Lee meets, even ones that have 90 seconds of screen time, all feel authentic. We watch Lee fall head over heels in love with Gene, even as Allerton remains just out of reach, never confirming whether or not he is gay (openly flirting with women in front of Lee.) We also see Lee shooting up, before watching the effects take hold & the sadness seep out of him, again showing just how incredible Craig is as a performer.

But then the film nosedives...

Lee is obsessed with taking a potion he has heard about called yagé, which can produce incredible results including telepathy. He then persuades Gene (by paying his travel expenses,) to come with him as he goes deep into the Ecuadorian jungle. And the moment we leave Mexico City, the film gradually descends into the most tedious, navel-gazing watch imaginable. I became so bored watching a character who I was at first fascinated with, blindly chase after a MacGuffin and ending up sat at a table in a poorly-decorated jungle set opposite Leslie Mann, who looked like she had wandered off a village Christmas panto where she was playing the Wicked Witch... The overacting in these scenes is almost nails-down-a-chalkboard painful, reducing incredible actors to looking like they are being directed by Tommy Wiseau...

And I haven't even got to the drug-induced hallucinations, which are like something out of a pretentious art project that has a multi-million dollar budget, with a director who thinks "Let's throw in some interpretive dance to really be cutting edge!" At one point, I shouted out "For God's sake, just end!" But the film keeps plodding on, just refusing to end, until it finally does & I was left slightly slack-jawed at what I'd watched.

And that is this film in a nutshell: you go from being completely swept away in the majesty of the story, to saying out loud to finish because you just want this to be over...