In 1950s Mexico City, an American immigrant in his late forties lives a lonely life among a small American community. However, the arrival of a young student forces him to finally form a meaningful relationship with someone. It was Daniel Craig who finally convinced Luca Guadagnino to cast Drew Starkey after watching an audition tape with Guadagnino and telling him, "This is the man" after seeing Starkey.. William Lee: Sit on Your Ass! Or What's Left of Him After Four Years in the Navy... Starred in The Graham Norton Show: Daniel Craig/Nicola Coughlan/Jesse Eisenberg/Kieran Culkin/Flo (2024). I've never seen "Naked Lunch". (1991), but I thought about it often during the screening of “Queer” at the 2024 London Film Festival: probably to be expected, since William S. Burroughs provided the source material for both films. In the 1950s; Mexico, William Lee, an American writer on the wrong side of… forty? fifty? He spends his days drinking, shooting, and having casual sex with other men. One day, a muscular, smart young man named Eugene walks into the bar, and Lee is smitten. But what does Eugene want? Plus, there’s that telepathic drug that’s worth pondering… I’m not sure what director Luca Guadagnino is trying to achieve stylistically with this film. The sets are decorated almost exclusively in block colours – muted reds and olive greens, for example – and have a vaguely unrealistic, stripped-down Technicolor look that makes me think the intention was to pay homage to the films of the era in which the film is set. But if that’s the case, why the rock and techno soundtrack that’s definitely not from the 1950s? Daniel Craig (is it my imagination, or is he starting to sound like Sid James?) struggled in the lead role, constantly having to shout nonsensical lines in an accent that’s clearly not his. Drew Starkey could have given a more subtle performance as the manipulative Eugene, and he certainly looks out of place in the role. Leslie Manville is unrecognizable as the doctor living in the South American jungle – bravo to the make-up team! This is the kind of film that, for me, is more about artistic style than the substance of the storytelling. It was nice to see it once, but I won't watch it again.