Timothée Chalamet’s cannibal romance Bones And All will devour your heart
Chalamet reunites with Call Me By Your Name director Luca Guadagnino, but it's Taylor Russell as a teen with unusual appetites who steals the show
Film Reviews Timothée Chalamet
Following the exquisite heartache of Call Me By Your Name, his Oscar-winning portrait of young, queer love found and then lost, director Luca Guadagnino made a surprising genre pivot to horror for his next film, Suspiria. But as unexpected a follow-up as a remake of Dario Argento’s Giallo classic might have seemed on paper, Guadagnino’s signature sincerity and depth of feeling made the film itself both an undeniable expression of his auteur voice and the rare remake to refreshingly assert its own unique identity.
With Bones And All, Guadagnino makes his second foray into horror, reuniting with Suspiria screenwriter David Kajganich for an adaptation of Camille DeAngelis’ young adult novel that feels at once more grisly and more distinctively heartfelt than the pair’s first stab at the genre. There’s no individual sequence in Bones And All as nightmarish as the one early on in Suspiria when Dakota Johnson’s dancing causes a threatening interloper’s body to contort into a helpless, bone-snapped pretzel, but the sheer quantity of torn flesh and bloody jowls on display make it a more graphically violent film than its predecessor. At the same time, though, what lingers most powerfully is the haunting sense of loneliness and isolation that plague its two adolescent cannibal protagonists, who find a much-needed connection with each other to compensate for their estrangement from the normal society of ’80s-era, small-town America.
The term “cannibal” isn’t quite right, though—in the film’s own parlance, the characters who suffer a genetically inherited disorder that requires them to feast on other humans for survival are referred to simply as “eaters.” At the story’s start, high-schooler Maren (Taylor Russell) has no awareness that she is an eater, trusting that her strict father (André Holland) has his reasons for frequently moving the two of them from town to town and keeping her sheltered from any social activities with her peers.
But one night when she sneaks out her bedroom window to hang out with a few school friends, she is startled to find herself so overtaken by this hunger that she compulsively begins feeding on a friend before rushing out in a confused panic. Her dad, having prepared for this very moment for years, quickly moves them to another town, and soon after abandons her with no notice, leaving behind a wad of cash and an audio tape he recorded filling her in on the details and history of her inescapably homicidal condition.
Learning that the eater gene was passed on by a mother (Chloë Sevigny) she knows nothing else about, Maren sets out alone on a road trip across the vast Midwest to find her. An old, creepy eater named Sully (Mark Rylance) finds her at a bus stop—experienced eaters have the ability to detect each other through scent—and shows her the ropes of the drifting, home-invading eater lifestyle he sustains. Once she flees his grasp, she comes across a confident, punk rock-styled eater her own age, Lee (Timothée Chalamet), who eventually joins her on her quest to locate her mother.
Chalamet unforgettably launched to movie star status in Call Me By Your Name, and for this second collaboration with Guadagnino, the director has gifted him with a role that showcases both his uninhibited brashness—the actor’s ardent fans will go nuts for an impromptu dance he does set to “Lick It Up” by KISS at one point—and his touchingly raw vulnerability. But Bones And All is even more Maren’s story than it is Lee’s, and Russell’s disarmingly pure and authentic lead performance deserves to put her on the star firmament alongside Chalamet. As she previously demonstrated in director Trey Edward Shults’ underseen family tragedy Waves, Russell possesses an artifice-free emotional directness as a performer. A big part of what makes the film so moving is watching as Maren, infused with that directness by Russell, chips away at the too-cool-for-school walls that Lee has put up to get to know and love the real him.
The movie’s affection for its characters extends even to the sinister Sully, who desperately clings to Maren out of a paternal impulse he has no safe, healthy way of channeling elsewhere. The reliably brilliant Rylance, outfitted with a rotting set of fake chompers and a dangling rattail of hair, makes him a figure even more poignant than he is spooky. As a result, the film’s only major storytelling lapse is when it tries to jam Sully into a limiting “villain” box for a contrived climax that feels too conventional for what’s otherwise a handcrafted horror/romance gem that unconventionally connects its gore to a piercing sense of loss and melancholy instead of to the demands of the mainstream horror formula.
As a love story centered on two teenage outcasts finding themselves and each other, Bones And All has as much in common with Guadagnino’s wonderfully lush HBO miniseries We Are Who We Are as it does with Suspiria. That long-form project’s gorgeous Italian setting is obviously more inviting, though Guadagnino is just as evocative in rendering Bones And All’s haunted middle America. The dusty windows, half-evaporated puddles, and intimidating power lines that jarringly clash with unspoiled stretches of nature beautifully reflect the desolation felt by the marginalized central characters.
Guadagnino’s formidable crew deserves credit for shaping the movie’s world too, including Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor and regular film composing partner Atticus Ross, who contribute a striking score that imaginatively combines spare acoustic strumming with intense synthesizer blasts. Like Bones And All itself, it’s simultaneously freaky and from the heart in a special, singular way.
27 Comments
So I’ve avoided this one based on the description and posters, thinking it was like … a teen cannibalism love story? Just not something I vibe with. However! Learning they’re kind of monster-y people-eaters, like day-walking vampires, has flipped a switch in my head and now I must see it. The trailer looks fab. I never want to be approached by Mark Rylance on a dark street. And the cherry on top is Chloe Sevigny as mother people-eater. Damnit, I’m there.
Mark Rylance’s soft-spoken gently quirky weirdo vibes are usually played as charming (Bridge of Spies, BFG) or silly (Don’t Look Up), but it makes SO much sense to use them in service of creepiness.
So- me, only child, grew up on a farm in the middle of nowhere. Watching the trailer I was instantly reminded of a similarly soft-spoken neighboring farmer who would stop by and slowly ask if my daddy was around. And he’d always say daddy. Naturally I always assumed he was going to murder me. Anyway, Rylance. So good. Put him in everything.
It throws me right off when an adult says Mommy or Daddy. I knew a guy in college who referred to his father as “daddy” and it was just – no. I think it’s cuz maybe he heard him Mom say it without realizing it had sexual connotations, I have no idea.
“So- me, only child, grew up on a farm in the middle of nowhere.”Same here. It was traumatizing as fuck and I’ve never gotten over it. Rural people are the creepiest people in America. They know how to play nice but they do some awful shit out beyond the city’s eyes.
Supporrrt group! 100% agree. Half of our neighbors were ripped straight outta horror movies. I’ve always thought it’s because they’re out there, often alone, listening to am radio, left to their own devices. Nobody around to help them hang onto their humanity, or even model normal behavior. I’ve lived in a dirt field (basically), NYC, and LA, and I’d put any of our creepy farm neighbors up against the craziest those cities have to offer. And it’s everywhere. During the pandemic we rented a house in upstate NY to get out of the city, and our neighbors were full on confederate flag waving, jug-sipping, overall-wearing angry yokels with empty snake eyes. Again, like an hour north of NYC. *Cheers to the trauma!*
Hello kindred spirit – of horror. The ghouls are all in villages 15 miles or so from my city. I stay in the city but that doesn’t mean it’s safe. They come out of their bunkers on occasion and infiltrate.Stay safe.
yeah same. i was gonna see it either way, but knowing there’s a weird genetic explanation makes it a lot more interesting.
So you wanted to avoid something you knew next-to-nothing about, then you warmed up to it once you actually had information to go by. Cool story. A good lesson for all
Yes! Summed up nicely. Thanks for your comment. 🙂
The day-walking vampire note is very spot on. I felt a lot of Near Dark in the film, not a direct analogue but a lot of the vibe and particular things.
I really enjoyed the movie, but I had a different read on Rylance’s character Sully. I had him pegged as creepy from the get-go. Sure he has a sadness about him, but the way he latches onto Maren, apes the way he presumably stalks his prey. From the corners, slowly observing and creeping in, but he makes himself announced front and center.
The scene when he confronts her later on is chilling. I do agree the ending feels a bit off, but I reckoned it has more to do with how chaotic the world that these people/creatures live in, really can be. No different than the feeling of dread from the campfire scene. It’s difficult to keep running from the realities of this lifestyle. It’ll catch up to you eventually.
What, Armie Hammer wasn’t available?
(Very proud of myself, obviously.)
The universe really is the size of a postage stamp.
hahaha nice
You can’t “steal the show” when you’re the lead. It’s Taylor Russell’s show to begin with.
I’ll go against the grain here and say that Russell’s performance was pretty “meh” for me. Rylance steals the show in the few scenes he’s in.
This truly is a YA plot, by the way. The fact that these underground cannibals have a name for each other, can develop some kind of powers, etc. There’s nothing wrong with it but the rest of the movie (which is GORGEOUSLY shot) doesn’t seem to match what it’s trying to do there.
It’s a light recommend. If only because you find yourself kind of rooting for cannibals, until you start thinking to yourself “Why do I want these folk to do anything other than just go away?”
I’m not sure if I’m understanding what you mean by “YA” here. I often avoid YA fiction because I find it soulless and dumbed down. Maybe I’m misunderstanding what YA fiction is but isn’t it just subject matter that’s been dumbed down?
When I think of YA Fiction I think of shit like The Hunger Games. Is this like Hunger Games? That movie is stupid as fuck.
The book this is an adaptation of is YA fiction. But the adaptation itself has artistic merit, especially in sound design and cinematography. But once you know it’s based on a YA novel, you can’t unsee some of the tropes it uses, even though it didn’t have to bother with it.
Are cannibals the new zombies? Yes, we are all consuming each other and the taste is foulWaiting for the exact moment when Chalamet turns into Shia LaBeouf.
Chalamet has always been Shia LaBeouf.
Suspicion confirmed.
Spot on review, here was my take (Rylance is a God):
Bones and All is based on a book by Camille DeAngelis and certainly
not anything I’d ever read. The horror/love story genre’s not my cup of
plasma.The adapted screenplay’s the product of David Kajganich and is the
main reason I decided to give this a shot, well that AND Mark Rylance
AND Timothee Chalamet, both of whom should have an Oscar for “Don’t Look
Up” and “Beautiful Boy” respectively. But I digress, Kajganich’s
Bigger Splash is one of the sexiest movies I’ve ever seen, so I was
hoping…And that’s one of the problems with Bones and All, the creep factor
is magnified and the sexy meter’s on tepid. This could be more of a
direction choice (Luca Guadagino, a master of Call Me By Your Name, This
is Love).But don’t get me wrong, I did like Kubrikian “The Shining” feel of
this film even down to the grainy Kodak film, having fun with the
scintillating dread of ‘something wicked this way comes’. Mark Rylance
is such a perfect actor, he can play dignified (recently in The Outfit)
and here he is deliciously horrifying. His line, “Well, I guess he
didn’t get the telegram” made me literally laugh out loud.While I’m on the hair raising topic, let me mention another actor who
should own an Oscar for best supporting in Guadagino’s “Call Me By Your
Name”‘s (ironically starring real life cannibal, Armie Hammer) Michael
Stuhlbarg. In Bones and All, he plays a backwoods cannibal whose hyena
laugh and good ol’ boy nature are pitch perfect. He’s a mini Rylance,
being able to transform himself from Shirley Jackson’s intellectual
pompous ass husband in “Shirley” to this hillbilly. Bravo, my man.The love story between Timothee and Taylor Russell is formulated and
while I did feel their island of misfit toys connection, I needed more
sexy and less cliche romantic music and kissing. Taylor Russell is
terrific as the damaged girl looking for her backstory, and my goodness,
Chloe Sevigny gets a tie for the award of ‘I’m unrecognizable’ (the
other nominee is Colin Farrel for The Penguin) as Taylor’s mother.
Bones and All is based on a book by Camille DeAngelis and certainly
not anything I’d ever read. The horror/love story genre’s not my cup of
plasma.The adapted screenplay’s the product of David Kajganich and is the
main reason I decided to give this a shot, well that AND Mark Rylance
AND Timothee Chalamet, both of whom should have an Oscar for “Don’t Look
Up” and “Beautiful Boy” respectively. But I digress, Kajganich’s
Bigger Splash is one of the sexiest movies I’ve ever seen, so I was
hoping…And that’s one of the problems with Bones and All, the creep factor
is magnified and the sexy meter’s on tepid. This could be more of a
direction choice (Luca Guadagino, a master of Call Me By Your Name, This
is Love).But don’t get me wrong, I did like Kubrikian “The Shining” feel of
this film even down to the grainy Kodak film, having fun with the
scintillating dread of ‘something wicked this way comes’. Mark Rylance
is such a perfect actor, he can play dignified (recently in The Outfit)
and here he is deliciously horrifying. His line, “Well, I guess he
didn’t get the telegram” made me literally laugh out loud.While I’m on the hair raising topic, let me mention another actor who
should own an Oscar for best supporting in Guadagino’s “Call Me By Your
Name”‘s (ironically starring real life cannibal, Armie Hammer) Michael
Stuhlbarg. In Bones and All, he plays a backwoods cannibal whose hyena
laugh and good ol’ boy nature are pitch perfect. He’s a mini Rylance,
being able to transform himself from Shirley Jackson’s intellectual
pompous ass husband in “Shirley” to this hillbilly. Bravo, my man.While I did feel their island of misfit toys connection, I needed more
sexy and less cliche romantic music and kissing. Taylor Russell is
terrific as the damaged girl looking for her backstory, and my goodness,
Chloe Sevigny gets a tie for the award of ‘I’m unrecognizable’ (the
other nominee is Colin Farrel for The Penguin) as Taylor’s mother.
Bones and all is how a gerbil mama does it when she eats her young. We’re born hairless, so I imagine its like eating a tiny raw chicken wing.
This was such a “meh” movie for me. I thought Taylor Russell was very, very bland. Certainly she did not pack the punch of a character struggling with cannibalism, her father’s abandonment of her, awkward teenage-ish interpersonal relationships, and first love. Generally, Chalamet was also unconvincing. The only really interesting parts of the movie were the other characters: Sully, the woman at the bus station, the carnival worker, Chloe Sevigny like basically reprising her role from American Horror Story.
This was one of my favorites of the year. It’s a modern, American folk tale. Everything worked for me, but especially Mark Rylance.