Queer (18, 136 minutes)
Verdict: Say never again
Shaken Bond fans may need a large Martini to challenge Queer.
Daniel Craig is clearly on a drastic mission to destroy his 007 image as he takes on the role of a predatory, alcoholic, needy, heroin-addicted gay man who scours bars for young men and then engages them in shockingly graphic sex.
Let’s just say it’s not something to watch with the family on Christmas Day.
Slavishly based on William S. Burroughs’s Beat-era novella, though minus its nastier parts, Queer is a sordid tale of fear and self-loathing in 1950s Mexico City (even though it was obviously filmed in a study in Italy). .
Here, American expatriate Lee (Craig) becomes obsessed with an emotionally distant young ex-US Marine (a pretty but deadpan Drew Starkey).
Is the boy strange? Lee can’t tell, but he’s determined to find out. From there, the two men alternately get drunk and have sex, or get drunk and don’t have sex, ad nauseum.
Jason Schwartzman provides warmth and comic relief as a jovial, fat homosexual (I thought that wasn’t allowed anymore?) who is repeatedly robbed by the strangers he has sex with.
Daniel Craig is clearly on a drastic mission to destroy his 007 image as he takes on the role of a needy, alcoholic, heroin-addicted, predatory gay man, who scours bars for young men and then engages them in shockingly graphic sex.
However, the entire plotless enterprise goes nowhere quickly, until a strange third act, where the duo embark on a strange journey to the South American jungle, spurred by Lee’s interest in telepathy, encountering Lesley Manville. Armed, he fights with a poisonous snake and crawls inside each other’s skin.
To be fair, Craig has some great moments.
The highlight is an award-worthy scene in which Lee shoots up heroin and looks, painfully and poignantly, into the camera.
And Burroughs would be tremendously flattered to see his alter ego embodied in a guy like that. Craig’s physique speaks more to a man built on kale smoothies and weight lifting than cigarettes, hard drugs and tequila.
Slavishly based on William S. Burroughs’s Beat-era novella, though minus its nastier parts, Queer is a sordid tale of fear and self-loathing in 1950s Mexico City (though it’s obviously filmed in a studio in Italy).
Director Luca Guadagnino (Challengers, Call Me By Your Name) is a master at exploring the play of power and desire.
But I’m having a hard time understanding what he’s getting at here, beyond the fact that Lee is a man who longs for intimacy and is tragically incapable of achieving it.
And yet, despite Craig’s committed performance, Lee’s agony is not felt.
Guadagnino is a daring auteur and there are some flashes of true beauty in this sweaty, soulless failure.
However, as a way for Craig to put Bond to bed and re-establish himself as a serious actor, mission accomplished.
From Roger Moore with love (12A, 79 minutes
Verdict: License to thrill
If you’re looking for a Bond fix, my recommendation is Roger Moore With Love.
This celebratory portrait entertainingly reflects its subject: self-deprecating and irresistibly charming, if a little one-dimensional. I loved it.
If you’re looking for a Bond fix, my recommendation is Roger Moore With Love. In the photo: Sir Roger Moore.
Told with a raised eyebrow, he explains how The Saint star first created his iconic, stylish persona; He then played it to perfection, on and off screen, throughout his life.
“I just had it,” declares former Bond girl Jane Seymour, one of several “dear friends” interviewed, including Joan Collins and Pierce Brosnan.
Nobody has a bad word to say about the man and, unlike Mr Craig, Moore happily played 007 until the age when his last Bond girl told him he reminded her of her father.
A lover of fast cars, luxury houses and beautiful women, he died without regrets in life and enjoyed every golden moment. How refreshing.
Kraven The Hunter (15, 127 minutes)
Verdict: supervillain turkey
Set to be the latest flop in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe franchise, following Madame Web and Morbius, Kraven The Hunter is the origin story of comic book villain Kraven (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), who begins life as Sergei , the likeable eldest son of a nasty Russian drug dealer (Russell Crowe with a Dodgeski accent).
Kraven The Hunter is the origin story of comic book villain Kraven (Aaron Taylor-Johnson, pictured), who begins life as Sergei, the likeable eldest son of a nasty Russian drug lord (Russell Crowe with a Dodgeski accent).
Dad instructs his children: ‘We are predators. They are prey.’
When Sergei is mauled by a lion on safari, a series of improbable events gives him ill-defined superpowers and he sets out to hunt down bad guys who kill big game, or something. It’s difficult to tell you more, since the plot has more holes than a moth-eaten carpet.
There is an enemy called ‘The Rhino’ (Alessandro Nivola), a murderer, ‘The Stranger’ (Christopher Abbott), and a symbolically strong female character, Calypso (Ariana DeBose), who is an ‘investigating lawyer’ who reads the letters of the tarot a mysterious secret.
She can keep it.
The CGI is complicated and the script so awful that it caused laughter at my press screening. Don’t hold your breath for Kraven 2.