Mexico City, 1950; American expatriate William Lee (Daniel Craig) is a barfly constantly looking for beautiful, young men to charm; he finds Eugene (Drew Starkey) both stunning and perplexing.

The same year as he depicted an alluring threesome of sorts in Challengers, Luca Guadagnino also took on a dream project. His adaptation of William S. Burroughs’s story is divided into three chapters, the last of which offers David Lynchian, ayahuasca-fueled hallucinations.

Not for all tastes, but it is overall a well told, sometimes funny, sometimes sad portrait of lust and longing, with a superior, human performance by Craig.

2024-Italy-U.S. 137 min. Color. Directed by Luca Guadagnino. Screenplay: Justin Kuritzkes. Novella: William S. Burroughs. Cinematography: Sayombhu Mukdeeprom. Music: Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross. Cast: Daniel Craig (William Lee), Drew Starkey (Eugene Allerton), Jason Schwartzman (Joe Guidry), Lesley Manville, Henrique Zaga, Drew Droege, David Lowery. 

Trivia: Co-produced by Guadagnino.

Last word: “We were always thinking of making it an artificial projection [of Mexico City] from the book and the mind of Burroughs. But we didn’t have a pre-concept; we worked on many elements, from the historical accuracy of the places [to] the nature of the places through the lens of the book and the descriptions in the book. We also looked at other filmmakers’ work, particularly [1940s directors] Powell and Pressburger, and then patiently built from that.” (Guadagnino, Wallpaper)