Directed by Luca Guadagnino
Starring Taylor Russell, Timothee Chamalet, Mark Rylance
Maren (Taylor Russell) is not like the other girls – she’s a cannibal. She can’t help but chew on her class-mates, which sure as hell makes it hard for her to stay in one state for long, let alone make friends. As she traverses the nation, she comes into contact with other cannibals who can sniff each other out, including the wisened, but troubled Sully (Mark Rylance), and Leigh (Timothee Chamalet) who’s closer to her age. The young couple quickly become an item and go on a road trip, all the while trying to negate (and satisfy) their hunger.
The doomed romance is very much meant to be the centre of the film, though it doesn’t feel involved enough to support the rest of the film. The romance isn’t teased too much before the pair just decide they may as well get together. The unique hardships they face along the way seem a bit more interesting, though a lot of this film feels like it’s merely standing on the shoulders of similar, but greater films, like the moody 80s vampire romance Near Dark, though Bones and All is sorely missing the style, passion, and fun of that film.
The sogginess that Chamalet’s acting often provides at least worked well in Call Me By Your Name (the last time he worked with this director, Luca Guadagnino) because of the brooding unrequited love at the centre of that film. But here, it just seems malnourished. Rylance is an actor that gives a committed performance even if his character is merely the creepy old guy in the creepy van.
The gory parts of the film are certainly to be enjoyed and feasted on, but they are few and far between. The film combines romance film with road movie with horror film, though never quite firmly lands its feet in either of the three. It’s a gorgeously shot film with great locations showing numerous locations across the US, really adding to the sense of desperately having to be on the road and on the move.
Bones and All has some blood running through its system, though it never goes hard enough into the shocks, thrills, or love. A well made film with great cinematography and music, but what it’s meant to be aiding (the romance and the story) is where more focus should’ve been spent.
DAVID MORGAN-BROWN
