Film Review: ‘Bones and All’ - An outsider love story with bite
Spoilers ahead!
Luca Guadagnino’s seventh feature film, 'Bones and All', is perhaps the most brutally beautiful film of the year; grotesque and achingly gorgeous in equal measure. Set in the US Midwest in the late 1980s, it follows Maren (Taylor Russell) and Lee (Timothée Chalamet), as star-crossed lovers with a shared gruesome secret... a voracious desire to consume human flesh.
The film opens with an unnerving scene, where Maren gorges on the finger of a friend at a sleepover, after what seemed to be an innocuous pass at a kiss. When she returns home, soaked in blood, her father Frank (André Holland), instructs her that they must flee immediately. After weeks in hiding, Maren awakens to find her father has abandoned her, leaving behind a cassette explaining his decision. After years of trying to protect her and mitigate the effects of her latent cannibalism, he believes her to be incurable. A curse he attributes to her absent mother, who also battled such an affliction.
Alone, Maren sets off on her quest to find her estranged mother. She travels across the Midwest and soon meets the sinister Sully (Mark Rylance), an older gentleman, who claims to have located her by scent. He pronounces himself a fellow ‘eater’ and invites Maren to gorge on one of his captives. Maren reluctantly agrees and is soon consumed by feelings of shame and regret.
Sensing that she is unsafe, she flees further into the expansive plains of the Midwest, where she will ultimately meet Lee, a drifter, and fellow eater. After witnessing Lee kill and devour an aggressive thug, Maren is both repulsed and captivated. His self-assurance and seeming lack of contrition in acting upon his true, cannibalistic nature prove magnetising.
The duo quickly become embroiled in an impassioned, all-consuming, and bloody romance. Entwined in an unshakable union, they take to the open road in search of Maren’s lost mother. Together they must navigate the perils of surrendering to forbidden love with reckless abandon. Furthermore, they must contend with a spurned Sully on their trail, who has revenge firmly set in his sights.
Much could be written about the film's allegorical qualities; monsters have long been symbolic of the most objectionable qualities of man – think Frankenstein (a grotesque mutilation of invention) or The Hulk (the embodiment of the beast of anger). Themes of unacceptable love and whole-scale societal rejection will naturally draw parallels with the queer experience too. Yet, Guadagnino makes no concrete allusions to such, in this nuanced, (albeit gory) take on alienation.
A visually stunning film, featuring a haunting 80s soundtrack, Bones and All captures Reagan’s America through the eyes of those that it refused to see. Russell and Chalamet’s on-screen chemistry is palpable: bare, raw, and primeval. Their passionate portrayal of a love unfettered renders the outlandish cannibalistic plot somewhat plausible. Russell earned a Best New Actress award at the 79th Venice Film Festival, with Guadagnino taking home the Silver Lion directing prize also. Judging by her performance, Russell will soon be joining Chalamet as one of Hollywood’s most in-demand young actors.
Bones and All is a beautifully crafted film for those who know the ache of alienation all too well. It is a salvation song for the disenchanted. Its message is clear: you are not alone, you are not defective, and others will love you until you learn to love yourself – if you allow them.
★★★★☆