BONES AND ALL
Love at first bite
RELEASED 23 NOVEMBER TBC | 130 minutes
Director Luca Guadagnino
Cast Taylor Russell, Timothée
Chalamet, Mark Rylance, André Holland
At this point, Luca Guadagnino and Timothée Chalamet could reunite on absolutely any project that they want. So the fact that their post-call Me By Your Name pairing is an adaptation of a YA novel about two cannibals on a road trip seems a puzzling choice. However, any doubts quickly disappear as Bones And All is an absolute triumph, and arguably the highlight of both men’s careers so far.
Taylor Russell takes centre stage as Maren, an “eater” who on her 18th birthday sets out to track down the mother she never knew,
An exquisite feast that – between sobs– should be heartily devoured
but as her beleaguered father Frank (Andrew Holland) tells her, was cursed with the same appetite for human flesh. On the way she encounters fellow eaters, played with terrifying aplomb by Mark Rylance, Michael Stuhlbarg and David Gordon Green. But it’s a chance encounter with the sensitive Lee (Chalamet) that sees a true allyship form.
It’s not hard to be swept up in the central romance; Russell’s performance is utterly enchanting, and Chalamet has never been more enticing, fully pulling off
Lee’s orange mullet, ripped jeans and pearl-buttoned twin-set. The two have a rare chemistry that is made all the more stunning by Guadagnino’s exquisite eye, as he composes everything from mountain ranges to abattoirs with the care of an oil painting. Atticus Ross and Trent Raznor of Nine Inch Nails, meanwhile, create a gently haunting score.
For all its gore (and repeated appearances of an eight-foot rope of human hair), Bones And All is a film of extraordinary beauty. Guadagnino has delivered an exquisite feast that – between sobs – should be heartily devoured. Leila Latif
Author Camille Deangelis is a vegan. She wrote the novel “to get readers thinking, ‘Am I okay with being a predator?'”