Exceptional road trip with melancholic man-eaters

‘You haven’t…?’ asks Maren’s father when she comes home breathless and with abloodied mouth. Yes, she has. During a pajama party with friends, Marensuddenly cleaves a schoolmate’s finger to the bone – to the shock of thevictim and the spectator. So Maren and her father have to flee to anotherAmerican state in the middle of the night.

Obviously, this isn’t the first time Maren has indulged her cannibalistictendencies. It also explains that her door was locked and her window wasscrewed shut. When her father leaves her behind, 18-year-old Maren (playedsoulfully by Taylor Russell) sets out to find her mother. Her journey takesher through Central America, where she meets fellow sufferers, ‘Eaters’. Amongthem the eccentric Sully (“Sully is never dully”) and peer Lee (TimothéeChalamet with purple color wash). Something beautiful arises between misfitsLee and Maren: Bones and All turns out to be an exceptionally romantic,melancholic cannibal film. At the same time it is also horror, growing-upfilm, road movie.

Bones and All is the film adaptation of the 2015 young adult book of thesame name by Camille DeAngelis. The story takes place in the late 1980s, theera of President Reagan. The soundtrack includes Joy Division’s doomful’Atmosphere’, which perfectly underlines the black romantic feelings of thetormented protagonists, outcasts through their hunger for human flesh. Inaddition to unsavory chewing and smacking sounds, the plucking guitars ofTrent Reznor and Atticus Ross dominate the soundtrack. Atmospheric music, withan occasional dark undertone, that fits well with both the romantic and theroad movie aspects of Bones and All , which crosses several poor Americanstates. We see dinners photographed at twilight, atmospheric in their lack ofatmosphere. And paintless trailer parks, ugly supermarkets, endless rollinglandscapes. Meanwhile, David Kajganich’s layered screenplay feeds the viewerdribs and drabs of information: why won’t Lee talk about his father, whathappened to Maren’s mother?

Also read a background article on cannibalism in the film: The cannibal hasthe future

As with Guadagnino’s previous film, his remake of Suspiria you can ask whathe has in mind: what does he want to say? Bones and All is mainly ambiguous.Lee is bisexual, which makes it easy to put a ‘queer’ interpretation on thefilm, with cannibalism as a symbol for ‘deviant’ sexuality. And with the non-eater as a ‘groupie’, fascinated by cannibals, a strong metaphor for theheterosexual who sometimes wants to experiment with homosexuality.

Anyway it is Bones and All a film that embraces being different. It’s alonely existence. Lee and Maren are happy together in places where no one is:the desolate landscape reflects their tragic nature. When Lee discovers a Kissalbum that features the band members with no makeup on, he is delighted. ButKiss without make-up is not Kiss. Just when the tire looks normal, it feelslike camouflage. Like with Lee and Maren.

Romance

Bones and All Directed by Luca Guadagnino. Starring: Taylor Russell,Timothee Chalamet, Mark Rylance, Michael Stuhlbarg. Length: 131 mins.