With James Bond now in his cinematic past, Daniel Craig seems determined to work on less multiplex friendly fare. This leads him to 2024’s Queer.

Set in Mexico City circa the 1950s, we meet William Lee (Craig). Though he attempts outreach, his off-putting demeanor means he leads a fairly isolated existence among a community of fellow American expatriates.

This starts to change when he meets former US soldier Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey). They establish a connection that alters William’s perspective.

Adapted from William S. Burrough’s 1985 novella of the same title, Queer became director Luca Guadagnino’s second 2024 film. Earlier in the year, he put out the more “multiplex friendly” Challengers. With a trio of attractive young people as the leads and the prospect of Zendaya involved in some hanky-panky, it certainly looked like a better bet to make biggity bucks than did the decidedly “art house” Queer.

And Challengers did do considerably more business. It took in $96 million worldwide versus the less than $7 million of Queer.

But with a $55 million budget and a major promotional push that mainly revolved around star Zendaya, the earnings of Challengers disappointed. No sane person thought a period drama about a middle-aged gay man’s relationship with a much younger partner would become a blockbuster.

To my shock, Queer came with a budget of about $50 million. I guess A24 subsidized the flick as a prestige project, as they can’t have imagined it’d turn a profit at that cost.

In any case, I can’t find the lack of box office success that came to Queer to turn into a tragedy. Slow and fairly dull, the movie rarely goes anywhere especially interesting.

Though I will say that William’s semi-abrasive nature makes him an unusual lead. Normally we get sympathetic loners in tales like this, but while he does develop as the movie progresses, William tends not to seem especially likable.

However, when William does change, he shifts more to seem pathetic than anything else. Rather than pursue a standard love story, Queer pairs the somewhat self-destructive William with the mercenary Eugene.

Typically this kind of tale would portray True Love, but it never becomes especially clear that William and Eugene feel that way about each other. Eugene clearly cares more about money than affection, and William just seems like another desperate and depressed middle-aged guy.

This actually makes Eugene the more interesting character, if just because his motivations can seem tougher to read. While it feels easy to view him as nothing more than a greedy opportunist, the film leaves open other dimensions.

William just seems like an example of what you see is what you get. He doesn’t become deeper or more interesting as the story proceeds.

And that feels like a fatal flaw, as we simply don’t especially invest in William’s journey. Will he find love? Will he wind up disappointed?

I don’t care. The movie never makes him compelling enough to spur my interest.

In this disc’s extras, director Guadagnino makes it clear he does feel William and Eugene offer a case of True Love. Unfortunately, the film fails to convey this well.

Craig does fine in the role, though I can’t help but think he took the part more as a Statement of Artistic Intent than anything else. How better to distance himself from 007 than in a role as a gay drunk/druggie that requires ample graphic scenes of same-gender sexual exploits?

Queer’s third act pursues a thread that sends William and Eugene into the wilds to search for a plant that supposedly provides the power of telepathy. This means the movie goes onto a tangent that feels largely disconnected from what precedes it.

Guadagnino’s doesn’t pull off this shift. This means the story gets less interesting as it becomes weirder.

All of this leads to a slow 136 minutes that lacks the intrigue or drama or development it needs. Queer fails to deliver a compelling narrative.

Queer appears in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This turned into a positive presentation.

Overall definition seemed solid. Though the movie came with some intentionally soft shots to fit its gritty photography, most of the image displayed appealing delineation.

No issues with jagged edges or shimmering materialized, and I saw no edge haloes. Shot on 35mm film, grain seemed natural, and I saw no print flaws.

Queer opted for a stylized palette that mixed greens, ambers, reds and other tones. It displayed these in a somewhat grungy manner but they came through as intended.

Blacks appeared dense, while low-light shots offered good clarity. Nothing here dazzled, but the visuals matched the story.

Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, the movie’s Dolby Atmos soundtrack seemed a bit more ambitious than I anticipated. A character drama like Queer wouldn’t appear to need a big old Atmos mix, but at least the soundfield opened up in reasonable ways.

This related mainly to music and ambience, as those spread around the various channels in a satisfying manner. Nonetheless, this did remain a movie without a lot of room for sonic ambition, so expect a low-key soundscape most of the time.

Audio quality worked fine, with speech that appeared concise and distinctive. Music offered appealing range and warmth.

Effects came across as accurate and rich. In the end, this mix worked for the tale at hand.

As we head to extras, we open with an audio commentary from director Luca Guadagnino, writer Justin Kuritzkes, editor Marco Costa, costume designer Jonathan W. Anderson and production designer Stefano Baisi. All sit together, though Anderson and Kuritzkes don’t show up until about 80 minutes into the film.

As expected, we get a running, screen-specific chat. The participants cover the novel and its translation to the screen, cast and performances, sets and locations, costumes, cinematography, editing, music, various effects and connected domains.

This becomes a pretty solid discussion, one that covers a good array of topics. Expect to learn a lot from the commentary.

Some featurettes follow, and Diverso spans 34 minutes, 20 seconds. It involves Guadagnino, Kuritzkes, Anderson, Baisi, composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, and actors Daniel Craig, Drew Starkey, and Jason Schwartzman.

"Diverso" examines the source and its adaptation, story and characters, cast and performances, costumes and period details, sets and locations, cinematography, and music. Inevitably, some of this repeats from the commentary, but "Diverso" nonetheless turns into a useful summary.

A Scene Breakdown runs five minutes, 28 seconds. We find remarks from Guadagnino, Reznor, Ross, and Kuritzkes.

The program digs into specifics for a couple sequences. It gives us a quick but informative reel.

In a similar vein, a VFX Breakdown lasts three minutes, 12 seconds and gives us a narration-free glimpse at how visual effects fleshed out the film. Because no one views something like Queer as an "effects movie", I find this segment interesting.

Lastly, Miniatures BTS goes for three minutes, five seconds and lets us see the mini-sets created for the movie. Commentary-free ala "VFX", this winds up as another solid piece.

The disc concludes with a music video for "Te Maldigo" by Omar Apollo. The song seems decent enough but the over-acted video creates annoyances.

Like other A24 releases, Queer comes with six Collectible Postcards. They fail to seem interesting.

An adaptation of a William S. Burroughs novella, Queer meanders and fails to deliver a strong character drama. It stands out as Daniel Craig’s attempt to distance himself from James Bond more than anything else. The Blu-ray comes with largely positive picture and audio as well as a mix of bonus materials. A fairly dull tale, Queer doesn’t connect.