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‘Queer’ Review: Daniel Craig Nails The Sardonic Spirit Of Writer William S. Burroughs In Luca Guadagnino’s Superb Literary Adaptation – Venice Film Festival
‘Queer’ review: Daniel Craig nails the sardonic Spirit Of Beat writer William S. Burroughs in Luca Guadagnino’s Superb Adaptation
By then, Burroughs had received long overdue recognition as the godfather of the counterculture; heroin was his drug of choice, which assured his long-standing association with rock’n’roll, but his beatification by hard-drug fetishists often overshadowed the astonishing quality — not to mention foresight — of his writing. Given the censorious times, he admits he once equated homosexuality with the “painted, simpering female impersonators I’d seen in a Baltimore nightclub.” (Sidenote: Queer cements Burroughs’ somewhat unsung reputation as a pioneer in terms of creating for himself — like the similarly non-conformist French writer Jean Genet — a more assertive, unapologetically masculine gay identity.) Opening with Sinéad O’Connor’s eerily unadorned version of “All Apologies” by Nirvana is a great start, and the ironic use of that band’s song “Come as You Are” is simply inspired (Burroughs almost always carried a gun, just as he lived out his last days on medicinal morphine that could have killed an elephant).
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