‘Bones and All’ Feasts on Flesh and Feelings With Equal Fervor | Review
If you strip away the cannibalistic horrors of Luca Guadagnino’s Bones and All, you will find a sweet coming-of-age story about seeking out people with similar life experiences and forging unbreakable bonds with them. While Maren (Taylor Russell) and Lee (Timothée Chalamet) are outcasts with blood-stained mouths, they are also runaway lovers, desperately trying to find normalcy within their abnormal existence.
Frank (André Holland) wants the best for his daughter Maren, which is why he’s moved them into another unassuming town on the coast of Maryland. But no matter where they go, Maren can’t escape her dangerous desires and it’s only a matter of time before she sinks her teeth into another victim. This time, Frank realizes he can no longer protect his daughter, and instead he has to protect himself and leave, forcing Maren to journey further inland to discover who she truly is. Her journey deeper and deeper into the midwestern heart of America mirrors her own emotional journey as she looks inward.
Image via MGM
Guadagnino uses the 1980s as his backdrop, tapping into the growing existential dread of the era, while exploiting the socioeconomic environment to further escalate this dire eat-or-be-eaten sensation that finally comes to fruition in the final act. But before that gruesome crescendo, Guadagnino carefully constructs his “eaters” (sic cannibals) as wayward souls, pushed out of society because of their primal needs and filled with shame that pushes them to wander, looking for acceptance in solitude.
The first “eater” Maren encounters is Sully (Mark Rylance) who takes on the shape of an eccentric outcast who tries to take her under his wing and teach her the ways of hunting down and consuming other humans. Beyond being a cannibal, Sully seems harmless, albeit odd. There’s a childlike air to him as he enthusiastically tries to connect with Maren, but beneath it all there is something dark lurking there too which eventually gives Maren reason to flee. The next eater she encounters is Lee (Chalamet) and through him everything changes in Maren’s life. Lee pushes her to come to terms with her desire for flesh, and makes her see that her life is worth living for.
Image via MGM
Like a cannibalistic Bonnie and Clyde, Maren and Lee set off on a road trip to help Maren find her mother, and along the way, they fall desperately in love with each other. They grow together, exploring the physical and emotional limitations of the life they lead, all the while still clinging to their ties to normalcy. But in the end, their past actions come back to bite them, quite literally, and it’s not society that betrays. Because we do, eventually, consume what we love.
Bones and All is to the cannibalism genre, what Only Lovers Left Alive was for vampirism. It’s a haunting and melancholy tale about love, acceptance, and a bloody and biting critique of the way society pushes outsiders to desperate measures, seeking to institutionalize instead of rehabilitate the sick and dying minds. Guadagnino has found a way to use the human body, in all its many wonders, to explore bone-deep agonies and feed the mind.
Final Verdict: B+
