Queer

INT. LIVING ROOM - DAY

Albanyac and his neighbor Sam have finished watching “Queer” and review it start to finish.

Sam

So…what did you think?

Albanyac

I mean…

Sam

You didn’t like it?

Albanyac

Is not that I didn’t like it. I think it was a bit all over the place.

Sam

I liked it.

Albanyac

Would you watch it again?

Sam

You never know.

Albanyac

So,that’s a no.

Sam

Is not a no, is just that it was done well and I loved that. I just think the story wasn’t as good as I was hopping it to be.

Albanyac

You’re saying you’d watch it for the sex scenes.

Sam 

Asshole!

Albanyac

I think it was very Edward Hopper.

Sam

Oh la la! Someone knows his art.

Albanyac

Yes, I’m bragging. 

Sam

Well, is a story of a man of age looking for love, falling in love and…

Albanyac

Looking for love? Were we watching the same movie? There wasn’t a hole left in town he didn’t try. That’s not a man looking for love, that’s a lost man.

Sam

Don’t make it about you.

Albanyac

Haaaaa! You cunt!

Sam

Well, sex and love are two separate things. Sex is a need, love is a feeling. 

Albanyac

Interesting. You deserve to be single forever.

Sam

What! 

We can have sex even when not in love…

Albanyac

I can’t wait to see where this is going.

Sam

If you keep interrupting me, someone is going to go somewhere.

Albanyac

Felicia chill. You can stay. 

Sam

But it doesn’t mean we’re not looking for love. Maybe he just likes sex. 

Albanyac

Once again…

Sam

Stop!

Albanyac

Lee annoyed the fucks out of me. There’s not a sequence in this movie where someone is not drinking. It’s aggressive. It’s overdone. We get it. He’s an alcoholic, a drug addict, a sex addict. He likes ‘em younger. He’s loud af then he’s shy. But then he’s smart. But what’s the story?

Sam

I think is a story of a man who finds himself lost and takes refugee in things that allow him to make real life less visible and create an imaginary one of his own. 

Albanyac

Didn’t I just say he’s lost?

Sam

Well, maybe you call it first because, maybe you can relate.

Albanyac

Did you have Brussel sprouts for lunch? 

Sam

Huh?

Albanyac

Cos’ you’re bitter af today. 

Sam

Sorry. Is the wine. 

Albanyac

Boxed. Wouldn’t know, I don’t drink wine. Anyway. 

Sam

About the movie. I just got confused from the moment they went on a trip and on. It felt like it was the start of a completely different movie. And it got weird. 

Albanyac

I’m gonna be serious now. This story takes place in 1950. Understandably Lee is a result of all the consequences and sufferings of being a queer man since the …what..early ‘20s? He’s at a point in his life where he is tired. Tired of everything. And he doesn’t care anymore. He’s decided how his life is gonna end. And it can be at anytime. He looks at the new generation and can’t help but feel what his life would have been. How things have changed (compared to his youth). And going with younger men, despite sexual desires, is also a way of experiencing the youth he never had. Assuming. Then unexpectedly he falls in love. And realizes (with Allerton not considering himself queer) that things are pretty much the same as they were but in different shapes and colors. Is just the way he views them that makes them different. And going on a trip to find yagé, said to offer telepathic abilities, I see it as a desire to be able to communicate freely with other queer people without being afraid of the world surrounding them. Maybe Allerton's of the world through yagé would have felt freest, to understand and be understood. Like a superpower.

Sam

But how you explain the ending? Him shooting Allerton?

Albanyac

Hearing about Allerton going back on another trip, I think is a way of saying that Allerton was still trying to find himself. And him pulling a William Tell, which symbolizes the struggle for individual freedom. Is a way of letting Allerton go. And if you think of it that way, Lee holding his body until it vanishes makes more sense. 

Sam

And Lee envisioning himself dying with Allerton by his side?

Albanyac

What is that saying “If you love somebody you let them go, for if they return, they were always yours”? I guess that can apply here. Figuratively. 

Sam

Ok..

Albanyac

What are you doing?

Sam

Nothing!

Albanyac

Are you crying? Are you fucking serious? Wtf! 

Sam

Is this fucking cheap wine!