Film Review: Bones and All is horrifically, tenderly unique as it blends carnage and courtship

It goes without saying that there’s a certain irony in Luca Guadagnino helming a cannibalistic tale in the wake of one of his his Call Me By Your Name stars being ousted for their abusive, sexual fantasies involving such anthropophagous tendencies; Armie Hammer, for those who perhaps haven’t heard, having been banished from the industry since such revelations came to light.

And although the primitive ingredient to Bones and All‘s narrative is central and, at times, squeamishly gory, it serves as more of a symbol, representing an uncontrollable affliction that has driven young Maren (Taylor Russell) and Lee (Timothée Chalamet) to a life of travelling solitude as they try to navigate an existence where they can keep their flesh-eating desires under wraps.

When the film begins, Guadagnino thrusts us into the grim reality of what it is to be a cannibal, as Maren finds herself invited to a sleepover with a slew of other high-school girls, seemingly sizing up her prey in a manner that’s initially seductive, but always unsettling.  Maren and one of her classmates lay next to each other, lightly talking and forming a quick bond that suggests same-sexual exploration.  Maren’s sniffing of this girl leads to a horrific act where she strips the flesh off the poor lass’s finger, before running off into the night with the hysterical screams of the remaining party bellowing in the moonlight.

We learn this is not an isolated incident, and that Maren’s father (André Holland) can no longer maintain this lifestyle where they jump from city to city following any of her outbursts.  Leaving behind a tape player and a cassette explaining her history, he abandons her.  As much as the opening scene shocks and displaces us as an audience – and lays the foundation for the realistic gore effects the film will sporadically delight in – David Kajganick‘s script never frames Maren as a villain, and as performed by the superbly stunning Russell she’s a character worthy of our sympathy.  She’s a lost, broken girl with an ailment she can’t control, now hoping to find a sense of herself and an understanding of who she is from another that will embrace her differences rather than reject them.

That other is Lee, an “eater” she happens to meet in a small town supermarket.  He confronts and then makes a quick meal of a man harassing a fellow shopper, and though he doesn’t particularly want to be saddled with Maren’s inexperience, a companionship easily forms and it isn’t long before they’re on the road.  On their travels they gradually reveal to each other how they’ve survived in the wild, so to speak, with her father, initially, and his younger sister (Anna Cobb) tying them to a life of “normality”; following her father’s desertion, Maren seeks out the whereabouts of her mother (Chloë Sevigny), wondering if she too shares a similar hunger.

Whilst so much of Bones and All dedicates itself to Maren and Lee’s blossoming relationship – Russell and Chalamet are so fiercely vulnerable throughout – and has an almost episodic mentality due to the various characters drifting in and out of the their story, with Michael Stuhlbarg and Halloween Ends director David Gordon Green making an unnerving impression as, respectively, another eater and his “normie”, a knowing accomplice wanting to live the life of a cannibal, and Jake Horowitz as a carnie whose sexual tryst with Lee brings forth his and Maren’s different views on who to eat and why, it’s Mark Rylance‘s Sully that makes the most lasting of impressions and serves as the one constant in their violent orbit.

What starts out as a union of kindred spiritship – Sully easily recognises Maren as one of his own – turns cold and ugly quite quickly.  Though they “share a meal” together, Maren can’t bring herself to function in the same way Sully has, and whilst initially we feel a sense of empathy towards him, Rylance lingers over the film with a discomforting dread that threatens to derail her and Lee’s hopeful life; “Let’s be people”, they so optimistically say to each other.  Ultimately, it all comes to a shocking head that refuses to let audiences indulge in any sense of solace – despite what Guadagnino suggests in the film’s quieter moments when Maren and Lee embrace their love and live free from their malady.

In his blending of genres, Guadagnino has created something horrifically, tenderly unique in Bones and All.  Romantics may find it too graphic and horror-hounds may deem it too sentimental, but appreciators of Guadagnino’s work – those that are all too familiar with his ease in attacking a “genre piece” from an outside perspective – should, for lack of a better phrase, lap this one up.  Another win for bold, original cinema.

FOUR STARS (OUT OF FIVE)

Bones and All is screening in Australian theatres from November 24th, 2022.

Peter Gray

Film critic with a penchant for Dwayne Johnson, Jason Momoa, Michelle Pfeiffer and horror movies, harbouring the desire to be a face of entertainment news.