Bones and All
Abandoned by her father, a young woman named Maren embarks on a thousand-mile odyssey through the backroads of America where she meets Lee, a disenfranchised drifter. But despite their best efforts, all roads lead back to their terrifying pasts and to a final stand that will determine whether their love can survive their otherness.
- Released:
- Runtime: 131 minutes
- Genre: Drama, Horror, Romance
- Stars: Timothée Chalamet, Mark Rylance, Michael Stuhlbarg, Chloë Sevigny, André Holland, Francesca Scorsese, David Gordon Green, Anna Cobb, Max Soliz, Kendle Coffey, Johanna McGinley, Hannah Barlow, Claudio Encarnacion Montero, Sue Hopkins, Brady Gentry
- Director: Luca Guadagnino
Comments
- maczko-zoltan - 12 June 2024
WHY?
When I watch a film like this, I always think of how many people, how much work, how much money has been spent to make it. Then I ask the question, why? Why did anyone think this film was necessary? That this story needed to be told? Why? What does this film add to the culture? What does it say about anything new? In short: WHY? When the film was made and the filmmakers walked out of the screening room, did they feel they had it? How did it go? That we had now told the most important thoughts and feelings of our lives, shown the most important moods and human connections? Or did they realise that, they had created a completely unnecessary, deadly boring, trite thing, that may have once been important to one of them, but by the time it was finished had become invalid, repetitive, silly? This film was embarrassing for me. It's like when someone thinks they are very important, their feelings, their thoughts, and they put themselves forward everywhere because they don't realise that they are clichéd, uninteresting and nobody cares. I felt secondary shame by the end of the film. - ElCinefago - 29 April 2024
Interview with the Cannibal
Other reviews will try to tell you about how this film is about cannibals. It isn't, it is another entry in the ever-changing vampire sub-genre of horror films.
The movie revolts around the idea of solitude in a world that seems to the protagonist as cruel, horrifying and scary as she outwardly seem to be. This film is a pure road movie where you will meet some unusual characters.
The Cannibals share more few traits with Rice's bloodsuckers and, interestingly, with the immortals in Highlander (1982) too than with aborigine Cannibals from a lost tribe in the Amazon.
I hope you don't read any synopsis or reviews If you're going to watch this film. I feel it'd ruin the experience of watching it for you.
Enjoy this film and open your mind on this journey. It'll be so worth it! - morganellison-64329 - 21 January 2024
Outstanding Movie!
This movie was outstanding. The concept of two people finding each other with the same abilities and being able to love and hate each other is overall the most satisfying and interesting thing anyone will ever watch, read and experience. The way the movie starts was confusing, but as it went on; I was more on the wow side of things. Like this could be a reality, this could be the way we live. Although it's not, it really got me thinking what if this was the reality we were all born in? How would we react? How would we feed? Would we find a new way. Like animals. This movie got me wondering the possibilities of the life we have and what the life maybe other planets have. - devojonesy1977 - 5 January 2023
They may eat people..But I WATCHED garbage
I have to start out by saying that I disappointed myself with this film being my first watch of 2023.
I couldn't tell which was worse, the horrible acting or the story. It starts off with Taylor Russells character Maren. (with Russells performance being the most deadpan performance that I have ever seen in a motion picture by a so called actress.) She barely speaks or even acknowledges her father before chewing off her new "besties" finger at a sleepover. When she meets Lee (played by Timothee Chalamet) she becomes Chatty Cathy. You finally get to hear Maren speak..and she still has nothing of ANY INTEREST to say. The jump shots (apparently to look artsy) only added MORE confusion to a pretty shoddy film. Notable good acting standouts were Sully, played admirably by Mark Rylance, and the father played by André Holland, and a very brief cameo by the legendary Chloe Sevigny playing Marens handless mother Janelle. This film failed on soo many levels that it's hard to pick just one problem. But for starters, Ms Russell might want to attend a few more acting classes before she is featured in another motion picture as a lead. And the director Luca Guadagnino, and screenwriter David Kajganich really didn't think this one out, it's like they had little or no interest in creating or telling an interesting story, that had an intersting premise. I'm sure original writer Camille DeAngelis was just as disappointed as I was to see her vision literally destroyed on screen. This might be an interesting film to "Gen Z" 13 year old females. But anyone over 13 with a semblance of respect for a good story? SKIP THIS!!!! - MisterJxroen - 30 December 2022
The World of Love Wants No Monsters In It
A very unexpected watch as I didn't know what I was getting into. I honestly thought this was going to be a film about a girl living on the brink of the starvation and meeting someone she falls in love with. I expected similar vibes to the film "Nomad" plus the romantic drama vibe.
As soon as Maren almost literally ate a girl's finger in the first couple minutes of the film, I deleted all of my expectations from my mind and just sat there flabbergasted for a good minute. I think this film is best watched without knowing anything about the premise or story.
If one were to know more going in the film and thus shaping certain expectations around it, I can imagine this one might be disappointing and boring to some. The concept alone is very intriguing but the movie transform that into an "entertainingly alright" watch, which isn't bad per se - just wasted potential in a way.
Though the acting for sharp and on point, from both main leads Taylor Russell & Timothée Chalamet. It was also a pleasant surprise to see Mark Rylance playing yet another fascinating (this time also creepy) character. The cinematography was neat but nothing really stood out to me, same goes for the score and sound design.
Since the story focuses a lot on the romance between our main leads, I think I should comment on that as well. I personally didn't feel much of a connection between the two characters. I wish they hadn't focused so much on this part of the story but instead had followed a darker path, like it built up in the beginning and shows off a few more times throughout the film.
The excitement surge I got from the genuine surprise I felt in the beginning slowly faded away throughout the film as it got a bit more dull yet remained perfectly watchable thanks to the performances and still somewhat interestingly unusual story. I liked it and would recommend it, but I just hope you didn't read this before watching and went in blind which made it a lot better for me personally. A decent 7/10 from me! - jadavix - 28 December 2022
Cannibal: The Love Story
Here's quite a strange one. The movie is sort of low-key disturbing. It's a slow burn, and what's burning is human viscera (either yours or someone else's).
There isn't anything in mainstream cinema quite like "Bones and All", I don't think. With its plot being a road movie about a duo of male/female murderers, and the setting being in the past, I thought at first that what I was seeing was like a horror movie version of "Badlands". But the movie becomes thoroughly something else by the end. This ends up feeling like a real love story. The most apt comparison I can come up with is Jorg Butgereit's "Nekromantik", the story of a love triangle between a male and female necrophiliac, and a corpse. "Nekromantik" stunned audiences by playing like a genuine sweet love story, with soppy music and romantic montages of human/corpse love.
"Bones and All" plays it straighter than Butgereit's film, not really asking us to join the side of the outsiders, but just showing their activity to us, clear eyed. By the end, though, I was on the side, if not of the Eaters (what this movie calls cannibals), than of the two lovers, who just happened to have a hunger for human flesh.
It only really goes for shock right at the beginning, and after that we know what to expect, though much of the violence is hard to watch. It won me over in the strangest way. Typically, with a movie about outsiders who are this much on the outside, ie. Murderers and cannibals, the way to get the audience to warm to them is by making all the normal people in the movie unlikeable. "Bones and All" doesn't do this. Instead, most of the characters are outsiders, so we contrast our guys with the other ones.
In these roles, the movie features some fantastic character turns from the character actors Mark Rylance and Michael Stuhlbarg. Rylance plays one of those people who is deeply hurt and perhaps more deeply lonely. The kind of guy who wants to be friends, but when he offers you friendship, alarm bells go off in your head. Michael Stuhlbarg is kind of like the Joker, a sinister figure amused by the darkness around him. Chloe Sevigny also makes a memorable appearance, despite her complete lack of dialogue.
"Bones and All" is one of the strangest, and most involving, movies I've seen in recent years. For fans of strange, cult-movie-type-movies, it's a must-see. It's also a must-see for anyone with a strong stomach who likes movies that make you think. - clennan - 24 December 2022
Demonic film. Stay away.
Anyone that thinks this is art is deluding themselves and self-aggrandizing. I think the writers should be on a watch list. This kind of evil does not belong anywhere. It's amazing to me so many can think they are cultured or intelligent to promote filth like this horror junk. It really makes you question everyone involved that want to delve into this level of gore and actually derive pleasure from it.
What kind of world do you want to live in? A place that continually degrades with an ever-lowering bar or do you actually want to see real Cinema again? Boycott and shame evil like this drivel of a picture and let's get back to real movies. - jeffcunninghamjd - 20 December 2022
Awful, just terrible
Horrible horror film, disatrous road flick, heartless love story, seemingly never-ending coming of age film. No idea what I saw, but I know that it was not even entertaining at the molecular level. Beyond that, the lead characters never ate the bones and all! This was so bad and I cannot emphasize that enough, as I was riding home on my motorcycle, I prayed for my safe travels home, which was only a mile away, because I did not want this film be how I spent my last couple hours on earth. I would explain the story more and what in particular was terrible about it, but it would take way too much time. Just awful. - Horst_In_Translation - 18 December 2022
Life's never dully with Sully
"Bones and All" is a new movie that is a co-production between Italy and the United States of America and the former aspect probably has to do with the fact that Luca Guadagnino is the director. He is known for working with Oscar winner Tilda Swinton on so many occasions and now perhaps young actor Timothée Chalamet, even if he is also older than I thought, could become the male equivalent. Everybody remembers "Call Me by Your Name" right away when I mention Guadagnino and Chalamet and with this film here they have a reunion and it is again based on a novel. The original story is from Camille DeAngelis, but given the previous work won the Oscar for its screenplay, it is safe to say that this one here will not receive the same accolades. Anyway, if you look at the cast, you will find a few more familiar faces. I find it baffling that Chalamet got first credit here (according to imdb) because actress Taylor Russell plays the character at the center of it all. The best example is how it takes quite some time for her to run into Chalamet's character and before this fateful encounter, we only know about her and her life. Not his. André Holland (Moonlight) some will maybe recognize in the early stages of this film. David Gordon Green, a really successful filmmaker himself, is also back to acting here, even if it is just a minor character. And fans of CMbYN will also be happy to see Michael Stuhlbarg return. I was happy because I just like the actor and he also plays in one of my most favorite comedy movies ever. Here, however, he plays a character that is much more sinister and evil maybe even and he shows us what happens when they really don't care anymore and turn into full-blown cannibals you could say.
There I am also talking already about the disorder from this film. It seems to be something in the brain or neurological, but in any case it is genetic because we understand it is something that if your parent has it, then most likely you have it as well. I am talking about the urge to feed on humans. It is still somewhat civil if you just go for corpses and do not kill anybody, but still it is questionable. But what can they do? The scene there when two characters were waiting for an old woman to die, so they could feast on her was fairly telling. Same is also true about the opening sequence which seems all so harmless and normal when a quartet of girls are having a sleepover, but quickly feels not so normal anymore when one of them out of nowhere pretty much bites off one of the other girls' fingers. This anomaly does not seem like something that healthy people know a lot about. The protagonist said herself that she did not know there are others who are like her, but there seem to be quite a few if we look at everybody she ends up meeting during her journey here. Almost a road trip movie. One actor I did not mention yet is Oscar winner Mark Rylance. He is the only one from the cast who is getting some awards recognition for his portrayal and the Oscar nomination seems possible. With his character we can never really be sure if he play an oddball, a creep or a genuinely dangerous man until we do find out at the very end. I liked it a lot how well Rylance played this character here.
On the other hand, Chalamet was the epitome of mediocre and forgettable. I always found him overrated, but here it becomes especially visible when he is next to somebody like Rylance. Ridiculously gigantic difference in talent. With Chalamet it is just the usual shtick. What a cool boy he is. Of course the female lead crushes on him quickly. He is very slim, but at the same time gritty and somehow capable of taking out more meaty guys without any problems. He is also such a gentleman as we see during his very first scene. He is oh so hip when he knows this old song and starts dancing to it. A brief inclusion of the gay component they also got in again when Chalamet's character targets a victim and there is some romantic tension between him and the other guy. Of course, Lee (Chalamet) is also a man who has moral values, who picks his victims in a way where it feels likely that they do not leave any family behind, even if it does go wrong on one occasion here. Or he picks victims that are just really unlikable folks, like again the one from Lee's first scene. Or look at the relationship with his sister. How she means a lot to him, but he is so edgy that he cannot be there for her all the time when she needs him. Yet at the same time, she always keeps fighting for his attention and no matter what he does, she always wants him in his life. Then there is also the background with his father. The troubled family situation is something that Chalamet keeps having in his roles. Or any troubled background, also mentally. Like here, his dad literally wanted to eat him, but the character of Lee managed to turn the tables and ended up eating his father apparently. He confesses this moments after how he says that he does not want to talk about his dad. Now that approach changed quickly, didn't it? No surprise of course with our two lovebirds that were made for each other of course. By the way, his sister did not have this condition, so maybe it is a thing that is always passed on to those children that are the same gender? Just a theory though. Or wait, am I even allowed to say these days that genders exist? Boo science!
Okay, back to the movie: I still felt bad for Chalamet's character in the end. I mean clearly he lost his life there with his severe stabbing injury and the love between the two protagonists is so big that he takes her back right away when she leaves him behind out of nowhere. And then he is killed by a man from her past, which of course does not make her guilty of anything, but it means that she is the one who indirectly brought chaos and devastation to his life. And not just his because if I understood correctly, then Rylance's character also killed the young man's sister before that. I liked that inclusion though. I was literally hoping that before the character really returned that he would return and be so jealous that he would do something to Lee's sister. Would make total sense from the lunatic's perspective. And so it came. I have not read the book, so I cannot say how things are handled in there in general, cannot talk about parallels and differences between film and book. I can only comment on the movie, but I kinda feel the book is probably not worse than what Kajganich did here when he came up with the screenplay. By the way, he has also worked on previous occasions with Guadagnino. Not their first collaboration what we have here. Overall, even if I despised almost everything about Chalamet's character, it was never really in doubt for me here that I would give the film a positive recommendation. By the way, the changing of the young actor's hair color from his normal color to red was probably included in a way that we do not understand how limited he is at times and that he just does not have a great deal of range at all. I would say that even Russell was better and she was almost a nobody before this film. Wonder what is next in store for her in terms of roles. Her character was also written better I assume. Nothing to criticize there. This moment of how she says to her man (or boy) that she finds it so sweet that for both of them it was the babysitter they killed first was almost a comedic highlight, even if I am not sure if it was meant that way. But the line about how life is never dull(y) with Sully was hilarious on another occasion too. Well, turns out this is true, even if it does so in an utterly violent manner in the end.
Another thing you could talk about here is the title. We get the first first explanation from Stuhlbarg's character what the title even means and it makes sense there. Basically the moment humans turn into beasts. If you can still call them humans before that. But at least they do not go full cannibal yet. Oh yeah, linked to that there is also Chalamet's character saying on one occasion that they do not have to live like that and there he was referring to something Sully does. First time the latter got out his very special item, I thought it was bowels or something, but this was of course not possible because they would have started to rot sooner or later. Anyway, I was talking about the film's title. I assume the moment when Lee towards the end is absolutely ready to get eaten 100% "Bones and All" by his girl when he knows he is dying, this was intended as one of the film's dramatic, also emotional highlights to show us how close the two are to one another, but what it felt like to me instead was really how much of a masochistic weakling he was and it was not a good inclusion at all. So I also think that the film could have done with a better title, but I guess they picked the one from the book and maybe there it is handled in a better and convincing fashion where the title actually makes sense then. As I stated earlier, I cannot talk about that. All in all, I give this pretty long film that runs for comfortably over two hours a thumbs-up and I think it deserves to be seen. I just wish they could have gotten a more talented actor for Chalamet's role and also written the character in a more convincing fashion. It is debatable if he is lead or major supporting still, but he does have a lot of screen time here for sure. It is not a negative deal breaker, but the film could have been way better with improvement in terms of either of these two things I just talked about. Other than that, it has some pretty nice attention to detail here and there. I liked stuff like the search after her mother, the inclusion of the tape and how we find out about the main character's past and background at the exact same time she does because her memory is also not super fresh anymore I assume when it comes to her younger years. That is all then. Go see this film, but seeing it on the small screen is enough. - lmnclips2 - 16 December 2022
Convoluted, confusing plot, and unexpected gore
Very convoluted over-the-top storyline that made no sense at all, characters that amounted to nothing, and scenes that made me incredibly uncomfortable to the point of throwing up. Why was Marion going around, eating people? And how does she immediately trust some random stranger (Lee) that she met a convenience store? And of course they have to fall in love!
*eye-roll*
The gore and cannibalism were really unexpected. And I watched the trailer for this film and there was no mention of it at all. That being said, I expected it to be some type of horror movie, with a side of romance. But the scene where Marion bites her friend's finger clean off, really caught me off guard.
The acting wasn't bad, but there were some characters I couldn't stand to watch, like Lee's sister. She acted like a complete b****!in every scene she was in. I really didn't like her. And don't even get me started on Sully. All of the cannibalism throughout was already bad enough, but the scene near the end where Sully is on top on Marion and he starts drooling was gag inducing. There's just something about seeing someone else's saliva that makes me sick to my stomach.
The only reason I rated this movie 5 stars was for Timothée Chalamet and the brief appearance of Chloë Sevigny. Otherwise my rating would've been 4. I regretted watching this, and wished I spent my time watching something more useful.
