Bringing William S Burroughs’ 1985 novella to the screen, director Luca Guadagnino (Challengers, I Am Love) delivers a very different take on queer life than in loving coming-of-ager Call Me By Your Name. This 1950s-set story is filled with unrequited lust and shame, which offers the role of a lifetime to Daniel Craig, leaving memories of his hetero poster boy Bond far behind.

Craig plays William Lee, an American expat and addict living in Mexico City, who describes himself as a ‘sex monster’. We witness William’s undignified efforts to cop off with younger men, before his attention settles on Drew Starkey’s discharged navy serviceman Eugene, with whom he begins a one-sided and financially facilitated affair. Jason Schwartzman plays William’s buddy Joe, who is forever having his possessions stolen by lovers, with Lesley Manville appearing as a wild, jungle-dwelling medic who assists in William’s efforts to try a novel new drug.

As you’d expect from the virtuosic Guadagnino, Queer is rich with fun visual flourishes, including a mesmeric, body-morphing drug trip, while Craig’s character is fired into the future at one point. The discordant score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is peppered with white noise, creating an eerie, uneasy atmosphere in keeping with the protagonist’s psychological anguish, plus there are a few enjoyably anomalous tunes from the likes of Nirvana and Prince.

Beautifully written by Justin Kuritzkes (who did such a fine job on Challengers), Queer is a sad and sordid portrait of a life derailed by addiction and bigotry that’s dryly and sometimes farcically funny. It’s shot through with empathy courtesy of Craig’s impressively nuanced, visibly vulnerable turn as a man who is both pitiable in his desperation and admirably determined to ‘bear his burden proudly for all to see’. An Oscar nomination seems assured.

Queer is in cinemas from Friday 13 December.