Bones and All Review

Based on a novel by Camille DeAngelis, Bones and All is a film that mixed horror, romance, a road movie, and a coming-of-age story. It was a film that attempts to tackle a lot.

Marin Yearly (Taylor Russell) is an 18-year-old high schooler who has an overprotective dad (André Holland). One night Marin sneaks out to hang out with her friends but it ends in bloodshed and her dad abandoning her. The only things she had left are her birth certificate and a cassette from her dad. Marin goes from Maryland to Minnesota to try and find her mother and discover her origins.

Bones and All won the Silver Lion at the Venice International Film Festival and screened at other major film festivals like New York and London. Because of this Bones and All had a lot of buzz around it. There was a lot of attention to the film because it reteamed the director and star of Call Me By Your Name, Luca Guadagnino, and Timothée Chalamet. It was a film with lofty ambitions.

Bones and All acted as a mash-up of various stories, like young outcasts on the run, like Bonnie and Clyde and Badlands, with the horror drama of Let the Right One In, and the American remake Let Me In. Bones and All was not a traditional horror film since it was about a girl’s journey of discovery, both literal and personal. The horror took a backseat to the character drama. The 1980s setting, the soft lighting, and the road movie narrative Bones and All came across like a Terrence Malick movie with a young adult fantasy twist.

Bones and All felt like a novel put to screen because of its structure and themes. When Marin travelled there was a title card to show which state she was in. It made the film feel like it was split into chapters because Marin met various characters and learned more about what it was like to be an Eater. Each encounter presented a new challenge for Marin and Lee (Chalamet), like a couple of creepy Eaters in Missouri, and when Lee tried to find a way to feed his cravings.

The journey emphasised that Marin and Lee were outcasts, they were permanently on the fringes of society. They couldn’t go to cities or built-up areas because they were on the run and a prolonged stay would raise suspicion. Lee had a family home and a sister he was close to, but his visits home were brief. Marin, Lee, and Sully (Mark Rylance) all discussed the dark morality of the need to eat people. They needed to survive but how could they decide who to eat? It was especially complicated for Marin since she had a conscience.

The dramatic approach made Bones and All a slow burn. It was about Marin and Lee going from place to place. This slow was felt after the characters left Minnesota since the story lost a lot of steam. The film loses momentum and agenda since the character didn’t know where to go or what to do. It does put a strain on a film that has a runtime of 130 minutes.

Bones and All had a sorrowful tone due to the subject. Marin was abandoned and alone as she travelled with only a little amount of cash. Marin, Lee, and Sully were forced to travel and figure out how to live their lives. Sorrowful would be a great word to describe the score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross because it had a simple, middle American sound.

The story did have an American Gothic sense to the story. This was due to the mystery of the Eaters, their subculture, the setting in rural America, and having to live in the shadows. The Eaters were strange creatures since they needed to eat human flesh but otherwise they were ordinary humans. They weren’t vampires where they would have super strength and immortality.

Considering the quality of the cast, the acting was excellent. Russell showed herself to be an excellent lead and she had great material to work with. She was young and scared and grew during the film. Chalamet has proven himself to be one of the best actors of his generation and he gave another strong performance as Marin’s travel companion. Rylance played the most interesting character with a constantly creepy presence as he interacted with Marin.

Bones and All was a grim and depressing film due to its tone and subject matter. The acting and direction were exemplary and there was a lot of food for thought. However, the slow pacing will be a turn-off for some audiences.