Luca Guadagnino once again turns his unique lens on the horror genre, and reunites with his Call Me By Your Name leading man (no not that one) with Bones And All.
Love blossoms between a young woman on the margins of society and a disenfranchised drifter as they embark on a 3,000-mile odyssey through the backroads of America. However, despite their best efforts, all roads lead back to their terrifying pasts and a final stand that will determine whether their love can survive their differences.
Maren is different from other girls. We are not sure how exactly but it is clear something about her life is not normal compared to other high school girls. She has a curfew at home where she stays with her dad. He keeps a lock on her door when she sleeps at night. To protect her from unseen dangers? Or to protect others from her?
The film doesn’t reveal its hand until it, well, reveals its hand… literally. Maren sneaks out of her window one night to attend a sleepover. Chatting away to one of the girls, she draws herself ever closer. She admires her nail polish before pulling her finger to her mouth. What first looks like a move of seduction turns to screams as chews the flesh from her finger, degloving it entirely. Shocked, she runs home where her father resignedly tells her to pack and be ready to go in three minutes. Clearly not his first time having to make a swift exit.
Yes, Bones & All is indeed the movie some factions of the internet have dubbed “Timothee Chalamet’s sexy teen cannibal movie”.
Those expecting that movie going in may find themselves starved of . This is not a horror film per se. Instead it is a coming-of-age movie. It is, in the film’s poster own words, “a movie about love”.
Thematically, it has a lot in common with Julie Ducournau’s Raw. Both explored the notion of a young woman coming to terms with these new feelings, sensations and ultimately cravings. How does one reconcile what she wants and needs with what society can accept?
It is not surprising to learn the screenplay is based on a novel by Camille DeAngelis. Narratively and stylistically it feels like a Young Adult romance novel directed by Hannibal Lecter,
Taylor Russell and Timothee Chalamet play the Fine Young Cannibals, or Eaters as they refer to themselves. Russell, who was so impressive in Waves, delivers as the troubled teen. Emphasis on troubled. Troubles that are quelled and exacerbated in equal measure by a character called Sully. An unsettling performance by Mark Rylance as the mentor-type figure who is the first to show her she is not the only one of her kind. It is a tricky role given the lack of empathy one could feel for her as a protagonist. However she shows enough doubt and confliction to take the audience with her on this macabre
In spite his heartthrob good looks, Chalamet has always chosen roles which have challenged him as an actor. Lee is no different. Here his looks and natural charisma work play into his character, using them to lure victims to their grisly end.
It is clear that there is a method to the madness in the way the Eaters live. This a richly fascinating world where they live and feed on the fringes of society. They can sense others of their kind by their smell. Some can smell when people are about to die. Each seems to have their own rules by which they live by. Yet all, despite what they may say, are dangerous. It hints at a world similar to that of The Walking Dead where there is more to fear from each other than the zombies, in this case humans.
A minor frustration, but a frustration all the same, that a lot of this world-building is eschewed in favour of focusing on the central relationship between these star crossboned lovers. Thankfully, the two have enough chemistry to paper over those cracks. Helping them to envision a future that could be different to one where they were a doomed Bonnie & Clyde-type couple. “I’m Maren, he’s Lee. We eat people”.
Some may find it too much to stomach. Some will find lots to chew over. Some will eat it up, Bones & All.
Bones and All premiered at the Venice Film Festival and is in US cinemas from November 23
Rating: 
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Stars: Timothee Chalamet, Taylor Russell, Mark Rylance, Michael Stuhlbarg
Runtime: 130 minutes
Country: Italy/USA
