Bones and All (2022) – Review

Quick Thoughts – Grade – B+ – Bones and All is an original experience that can best be described as a love story between two cannibals who go on a roadtrip through rural America. It’s a unique watch and it’s fun seeing director Luca Guadagnino explore the backroads of the United States. As always, Taylor Russell (watch Waves now) and Timothée Chalamet are excellent, and the supporting cast of Mark Rylance, Michael Stuhlbarg and Chloë Sevigny all create memorable characters who may or may not eat the bones of their victims. 

Love is never easy in the films of Luca Guadagnino, between A Bigger Splash, Call Me By Your Name, and I Am Love, there’s always a certain amount of violence, lies, and remorse that goes along with romantic entanglements. Things are no different in Bones and All, as it’s about a cannibal named Maren (Taylor Russell) who meets a fellow cannibal named Lee (Timothée Chalamet) during her travels around the United States. The reason they meet on the road is because they’ve had to live on the periphery of society as their need for flesh doesn’t exactly make them great neighbors or coworkers. The cannibals in Bones and All  scrape out an existence on the road that finds them stealing from grocery stores and picking up human “familiars” who keep them safe and fed. They behave exactly like humans do, but if they don’t eat flesh they become zombie-esque (it’s implied) monsters which puts the people they love in danger. Also, craving human flesh destroys their humanity as they are forced to either die, or commit to a life of murdering people for food. Basically, life is tough for the cannibals because they were born with a taste for people, and they need to eat.

An interesting wrinkle is that the cannibals can smell each other, which leads to Maren meeting Sully (Mark Rylance), a clearly deranged person-eater who keeps the hair of every person he eats. Sully claims that he can smell people who are dying and that’s how he picks his prey. After having lunch with him (AKA eating an elderly woman), Maren boards a bus to escape the maniac, and this leads her to a grocery store where she meets Lee. The two decide to travel together, and eventually they fall in love as they plan future meals, meet fellow cannibals, and enjoy the vast expanse of America. They work well as a duo, and are able to overcome the fact that cannibals don’t normally do well in groups because when they watch another cannibal eat, it acts like a mirror and they don’t like being reminded that they eat the organs of dead people. 

I’d love to share more, but I don’t want to give away anything that could spoil your enjoyment of the film. Just know that it’s a patient movie that occasionally gets very bloody. As expected, Russell and Chalamet are solid and their chemistry is the reason why the movie works so well. They understand the roles, and are able to create likable characters who occasionally lure people into cornfields so they can eat them. 

Final thoughts – Bones and All is an original experience that is worth a watch.