‘Bones and All’ Review: Luca Guadagnino's Cannibal Love Story is a Must-See
Luca Guadagnino delivers another tour-de-force film in Bones and All, featuring career-best performances from Taylor Russell and Timothée Chalamet.
Luca Guadagnino has not missed. Even his weaker efforts, like Call Me By Your Name (sorry, not sorry), are still admirable to watch. With his cannibal romantic drama Bones and All, based on the book of the same name written by Camille DeAngelis, he crafts his best film since A Bigger Splash, one that will linger long after you’ve left the theater. Terrence Malick’s Badlands meets Julia Ducournau’s Raw, and it is equally terrifying, disgusting, and amazingly engaging from start to finish.
Some say it’s the grossest film of the year, but I would bet they have not seen Triangle of Sadness, which is far more disgusting than Bones and All. One person walked out of the screening after fifteen minutes, during the scene in which our protagonist, Maren Yearly (Taylor Russell), eats the body of an older woman with Sully (Mark Rylance) after she passes away. But most cannibal scenes are performed off-screen or are too briefly shown that their impact isn’t intensely felt. It may be too much for some, and some scenes made me squeal a bit (mainly when Maren bites off a finger during the opening scene), but it isn’t as detailed as Cannibal Holocaust, Cannibal Ferox, or Raw.
However, it wouldn’t be fair to compare Bones and All to Cannibal Holocaust – the films are vastly different and don’t paint cannibalism similarly. Guadagnino’s film is more subtle in its insertion of cannibalism, while Ruggero Deodato’s controversial horror film makes cannibalism the main attraction. In Bones and All, cannibalism isn’t the main issue, but the atmosphere and tension surrounding a pulsating desire for human flesh. After one last incident in Virginia, Maren’s father (André Holland) wakes up one morning, leaves her, citing that he can’t help her anymore, and tells her to fend for herself. Maren leaves her home and goes on a road trip to visit her mother (Chloë Sevigny), hoping she will find a new home.
There, she encounters Sully, another cannibal, hoping to bring Maren under his wing to kill innocent individuals to satiate his lust for flesh. But she leaves as soon as she understands what’s going on and will quickly meet Lee (Timothée Chalamet), another ‘eater’ who will cross the country with Maren as they reach his mother. First, however, they will start to fall in love, all while Sully is stalking the couple and following their every move.
Here’s a cold take: Mark Rylance did not deserve to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies. It was a good movie, and he gave a good performance, but it was Sylvester Stallone’s year with Creed. And now here’s a hot take: Mark Rylance deserves to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in Bones and All. It’s unclear if he will get nominated (there are way too many good movies in 2022), but if he does, he deserves it.
His portrayal of Sully is the most terrifying horror movie antagonist of the year. And he’s only in the movie for a total of three scenes, but the presence he brings to those sequences is second to none. At first, he appears friendly, but Maren quickly realizes what’s in the back of his head, making him someone to fear. And then he seems again desperate for Maren’s attention and possible friendship. What follows is not only devastating for Maren but is hands-down the scariest scene of the year. Rylance plays the character with such a magnifying gaze that it’s hard not to look away from him, even when he is in a psychotic fit of rage. The final minutes, involving Chalamet, Rylance, and Russell is one of the most tension-filled climaxes I’ve seen on a big screen this year, greatly benefited from its engulfing sound design, tight editing, and masterful cinematography from Arseni Khachaturan.
The sound design is one of the most frightening aspects of Bones and All, especially with how it establishes tension in a way that most mainstream horror films don’t. But, of course, Bones and All isn’t a horror film, so why is it so damn scary? Every time Sully’s bag is seen in the frame, a sense of unease is felt, and you immediately jump as soon as he appears, even if he approaches Maren in the calmest possible way. The cinematography and sound design are so effective that even the film’s most subtle moments can be overwhelming emotionally and cathartically.
A scene involving Michael Stuhlbarg and David Gordon Green (yes, that David Gordon Green) is another spine-tingling moment where the atmosphere does most of the scene’s heavy lifting. Stuhlbarg is petrifying enough as Jake, a cannibal who tries to convince Lee and Maren to go “bones and all,” where you not only eat the flesh but the bones and internal organs of the body as well. His partner, Brad (Gordon Green), wasn’t born a cannibal but has developed an affinity for “bones and all.” The two don’t even need to showcase their gruesome act to make their limited presence feel horrifying, and yet it’s directed with such impeccable tension that it naturally curls our spine and never once feels forced.
Even moments where the sound jumps at the audience don’t feel cheap – the atmosphere Guadagnino creates in his picture is second to none and grips us from beginning to end. Add two powerhouse lead performances from Timothée Chalamet and Taylor Russell, and you’ve got a winner. I’m not the biggest fan of Chalamet – he is not a good fit to play Paul Atreides in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune and delivers his lines with the energy of a sleepwalker for most of the films he’s in.
He gives one of the best performances of his career in Bones and All as Lee. It’s subtle, but he doesn’t overdo it. He also shares impeccable chemistry with Russell, a star in her own right. Their romance is electric, a carefree relationship transformed via their cannibalistic impulses.
Because of this, Bones and All is one of the most masterful pictures of the year. It’s one of the most excellent examples of storytelling prowess I’ve seen from Guadagnino, who is at the height of his powers as an auteur. No one could’ve adapted DeAngelis’ material the way Guadagnino does here. End of story.