Worth: $16.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Taylor Russell, Timothée Chalamet, Mark Rylance, André Holland, Michael Stuhlbarg, Chloë Sevigny
Intro:
… a vivid and singular experience, a flesh-eating heart-breaking road movie with love on its mind and blood on its teeth.
The humble road movie is an incredibly versatile vehicle for all manner of cinematic storytelling. It can encompass countercultural classics like Easy Rider (1969), feminist dramas like Thelma & Louise (1991), gonzo drug-addled odysseys like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) and even apocalyptic father/son bonding sessions like The Road (2009). However, Bones and All, the latest film from acclaimed director Luca Guadagnino, is probably the first time the adaptable genre has been utilised in the service of a cannibal romance movie and the result is as uneasy and memorable as the premise suggests.
Bones and All is the story of Maren Yearly (Taylor Russell), a pleasant if shy young woman who has a nasty habit of feasting on human flesh from time to time. Eventually, her father Frank (André Holland) has had enough of his daughter’s peculiar culinary choices and leaves Maren to fend for herself. The 18-year-old embarks on a journey of discovery, trying to find out what she is and why she digs the taste of long pig. Along the way, Maren meets Lee (Timothée Chalamet) and the pair form an increasingly intimate bond, in large part because the sharply cheekboned lothario is an “Eater” too.
What follows is a meandering, plot-light road movie with a sombre tone interspersed with moments of shocking, genuinely disturbing violence. It’s such a strange fusion of genres and, for the most part, it works spectacularly well. Taylor Russell and Timothée Chalamet both deliver utterly engrossing, believable performances, with Chalamet, in particular, moving outside his usual wheelhouse of foppish waifs. The support cast is also incredible, with Mark Rylance unforgettable as Sully, an older Eater whose motivations are murky.
Luca Guadagnino has crafted a beautiful, mournful and often bleak exploration of grounded monsters livened by occasional moments of hope that are quickly dashed against the jagged rocks of reality. Being an Eater is a miserable, lonely life in this film, and the bond between Maren and Lee feels all the more precious because of it.
It’s fair to say Bones and All won’t be for everyone. The slow pace, occasional (very) graphic violence and frequently desolate tone (helped immensely by a score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, no less) don’t exactly put it into the crowd-pleaser category. But if you’ve got the patience and stomach for something a little different, Luca Guadagnino’s latest film is a vivid and singular experience, a flesh-eating heart-breaking road movie with love on its mind and blood on its teeth.
