Director: Luca Guadagnino
Starring: Taylor Russell, Timothee Chalamet, Mark Rylance
Year: 2022
Luca, Tim, and Michael Stuhlbarg reunite after Call Me by Your Name, but in a film that’s quite different; think same melancholy mood but a lot more blood. Also think Raw meets American Honey, which will give you some idea of the temper of this movie, without spoiling things too much. I didn’t know the plot before coming in, I was surprised and pretty delighted when it was darker than I thought, and I think Bones and All can be something that can be enjoyed, but you better enter with an open mind.
Maren is an unusual girl; just moved to town, not a lot of money, a strict father, not allowed to really have friends or go places, it’s pretty weird. But it gets even weirder when she sneaks out and does something completely unexpected and utterly bizarre. Now she’s on the run and on the road, learning fast that she doesn’t quite have a place anywhere in this world, but that others actually understand. Some are scary, like Sully, an older man who seems more than a bit off, but some make the journey worth it, like Lee, a boy who might truly be the first people who honestly understands.
I can’t go into the details more, it’s best if you see the story ambiguously, but be prepared for a bit of blood and a more twisted tale than you might imagine. Still, at its core, Bones and All is a love story, a travel story, the book of someone’s unique life, complete with the people they experience along the way, and that’s something that’s always interesting to watch. With a cool mood and an unusual feel, this is a film to sink into, and it’s magical how it makes you forget its more tangled elements and let’s you just focus on the romance, until BAM! the truth comes back hard. That’s a job well done for Luca, as least a one-of-a-kind piece of cinema, with a lead that’s not super but enough supporting actors to bolster her along, until audiences fall into the plot enough to lose themselves in the parts that work the best.
My rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆