Movies…with a little bit of obscure culture and sports mixed in
I never would have thought that I would be tearing up on the train watching a young man desperately pleading with his girlfriend while bleeding out on the floor of a dusty dorm apartment. I never would have thought this character uttering “eat me” would force me to cuddle up in a ball and hide my tear ducts.
“A young woman embarks on a 1000 mile odyssey through America where she meets a disenfranchised drifter. But all roads lead back to their terrifying pasts and to a final stand that will determine whether love can survive their otherness.”
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Writers: Camille DeAngelis, David Kajganich
Staring: Taylor Russell, Timothée Chalamet, Mark Rylance, Kendle Coffey
Release Date: November 23, 2022
IMDB
I never would have thought that I would be tearing up on the train watching a young man desperately pleading with his girlfriend while bleeding out on the floor of a dusty dorm apartment. I never would have thought this character uttering “eat me” would force me to cuddle up in a ball and hide my tear ducts.
This blog is about a movie called Bones And All (2022). If you haven’t seen or heard of this film, I beseech you to stop reading and go turn on this movie before returning to this page.
Bones And All is nothing what you expect it to be. Director Luca Guadagnino creates an amoeba-esq genre bending atmosphere that wriggles with underlying tension. Writers and creators David Kajganich and Camille DeAngelis take the normal storytelling lens of teenage love and coat it with a thick red coat of cannibalism.
Yup, you read that right. Cannibalism.
The movie starts in a high school focusing on a shy girl named Maren (Taylor Russell). She is invited to a sleepover by a kind student who wants to make sure a new student doesn’t feel too alone in the world. Maren is from the other side of the tracks so the viewer is naturally rooting for her when she sneaks out to hang out with her potential new friends. Just when it feels like Maren is going to rise above the awkward small talk, the story’s first drastic divergence veers the viewer off the road of expectation.
Maren is a cannibal. She has a hunger, and the only satisfaction is human flesh. She doesn’t know why she has this craving. It’s an isolating feeling and her sense of loneliness is exacerbated two-fold when her father abandons her. It seems harsh, and maybe it is. But Maren’s father thinks this is a necessary action. One that Maren needs.
Maren is left with a cassette tape from her father where he reflects on how he came to learn about the affliction that affects both her, and her mother. Armed only with a desire to try and understand herself more, Maren presses play on the next portion of her life and begins bus hopping across the country. On the road Maren meets two characters, both of whom would leave indelible marks on her young life.
Mark Rylance plays the part of Sully, an old quirky man who could smell Maren from blocks away. Sully is the first fellow cannibal that Maren has ever met, and what a unique first impression he makes. He teaches Maren that those afflicted with their hunger can smell both fellow cannibals, and those who are near death. He denotes that it is something she will learn as she grows up. He makes sure to note that it helps when the hunger gets stronger with age.
Sully has camped out in a home where the owner is slowly dying and he invites Maren to stay with him. The mood is remarkably uneasy. Maren is jittery when she learns that Sully keeps a lock of hair from every single person he has eaten. Is this a normal thing? Is this what all cannibals do?
Before Maren puts Sully in a rear view window, she shares one meal with him. Together they eat the women once she has passed out of the living world. It is a strange image to see an old white man and a young black child gnawing on the limbs of a dead old white woman. There are many visually striking images from Bones And All, and this first feast of the flesh is one of them.
After Maren leaves Sully without warning, she locks eyes with Lee (Timothée Chalamet) at a local drug store. Taking notes from lessons that Sully taught her, Maren recognizes that Lee is also a cannibal, and he knows that she is one as well. Lee even offers her part of a man he has just killed and ate.
After some tough early oafish friendship moments, Maren and Lee begin to connect on a deeper level. Maren is more comfortable asking Lee questions because he is near the same age. She is envious of his freedom and ability to survive on his own, and he finds comfort in her reliance on him. The pair balance themselves out in terms of attachment and temperament.
Lee agrees to join Maren on a voyage to find her mother. Maren is trying to find out things about herself and Lee can appreciate the journey of self discovery that he had to pass through himself. Everyone has a defining moment when it comes to this flesh-eating lifestyle they have, and Lee wants to marshall Maren through hers because his earth-shattering moment is one he is not happy to remember.
But because life isn’t fair, Maren’s reunion with her mother doesn’t go as she hoped. She gets a glimpse into what can happen both mentally and physically to people like her. Throughout the course of Bones And All, Maren’s knowledge of the human spectrum expands to horrific bounds. She learns tome cannibals who kill with vampin glee, and there are those who do it not out of survival but out of joy. It is a loss of innocence, and if not for Lee by her side, Maren may not have been able to keep her own sanity.
Bones And All is not a happy movie. With that being said, there is still a sense of empowerment watching Maren and Lee figure themselves out with the help of one another. Yet, stability is something Lee and Maren have never lived with. Because life is life, a wrench is thrown into their idyllic plan.
Bones And All is not a happy ending. Perhaps there is a soft-smile as the final shot flashes on the screen, but the emotions brought forth by Lee and Maren’s final moments are similar to those surrounding a wake or funeral. You remember the happy memories that are flashing in your head, but there is a sorrowing anchor that weighs down even the most appreciative thoughts. At the end of Bones And All, you can easily identify all the crucial lessons and memories Lee and Maren shared with one another. The audience can relate to Lee and Maren in either their light or dark times.
Luca Guadignino is an Italian director and I readily admit that I have not seen much of his work. The only other film of his I have seen is Call Me By Your Name (2017), which is another outstanding love story that tugs at the heartstrings. I have a bias toward love stories that don’t end happily so Guadignino’s last two works have both left me wonderfully sad.
Those who have seen Call Me By Your Name will be happy to know that Chalamet’s performance in Bones And All is worthy of the same conversation as his Oscar nominated performance. Guadignino gets the most out of Chalamet, but the star of the movie is Rylance.
Oh, did you think I was going to say Taylor Russell, who plays Maren? You might think that, but no character sticks in your memory more than Sully. Rylance, the one-time Oscar nominee, plays the elderly creepy flesh-eating grandfather character with an outstanding slow drawl. He speaks to Maren like she is a child incapable of learning and it both draws the lonely child in and scares her away.
The scary part of the Sully character is that you somewhat feel for him even as his attempts to court Maren make your skin crawl. Sully has been alone for so long that he has forgotten how to communicate like a normal person. The character of Sully, and all of his eccentric qualities, is fleshed out to a point where you understand his motivations. When all things come to a head at the end of the Bones And All, you feel as if you have traveled the road of each of the film’s major characters.
I have a couple other thoughts about Bones And All. Let me work this out.
The first is that there are strong The Shining and Doctor Sleep vibes. The concept of a unique child with a life-long affliction that affects them the rest of their lives immediately makes me think of the Torrence family. Thankfully Hollorann (Scatman Crothers) is a nicer mentor than Sully. Unfortunately, there are nasty individuals like Rose The Hate or Crow Daddy. It is tough for unique fictionally afflicted characters out there.
The second concept I am wrapping my head around is that the cannibalistic nature of Bones And All is another way to address sex at a young age. At a young age you don’t know what the urges are and you act without thinking of consequences. Bridges are burned and relationships are fraught. As one grows older the idea of sex changes. You learn that sex is not always about true love and fairy tale romance. You learn that there are different ways that people approach this urge, and not all the ways are good.
Also, there is the idea of “Bones And All.” There are stages till you get to the symbolic top of the mountain. You work your way up the different stages of satisfaction. You start off small, not really knowing what you’re doing. You don’t know if the thing you are experimenting with is right or wrong. Then when you realize you aren’t alone in this hunger, you slowly escalate things as you are comfortable till you feel comfortable diving right in. The idea of “And All” is intimidating to many, and if we are correlating to sex, it is a more brave and trusting step for women to make than men. Bones And All is told through Maren’s eyes.
Again, these were just thoughts that were churning through my head. It may be a leap, but it is a jump that my neurons did make. I am not saying that there is a direct correlation between the cannibalistic nature of Lee and Maren and society’s overall approach to learning about how to approach sex. I just appreciate the story allowing me to think that way.
Since I have been taking more of a measured approach to my cinematic hobby, there have been a few love stories that have stuck in my mental rolodex. Bones And All has joined the likes of Call Me By Your Name, Portrait Of A Lady On Fire (2020) and The Fault In Our Stars (2014). I love myself a great fucking cry, and I never would have though that a cannibal-themed love story would reach that level of enjoyable sorrow.
Bones And All is streaming on Hulu. Turn it on, right now.
STANKO RATING: A
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