You remind me of every junkie I ever met. You look like the kind that's convinced himself he's got this under his thumb. But you pull on one little thread and... But maybe love will set you free, man. Maybe love will set you free.
Bones and All is a 2022 romantic horror road film directed by Luca Guadagnino from a screenplay by David Kajganich, based on the 2015 novel Bones & All by Camille DeAngelis. The film stars Taylor Russell and Timothée Chalamet, with Michael Stuhlbarg, André Holland, Chloë Sevigny, David Gordon Green, Jessica Harper, Jake Horowitz, and Mark Rylance appear in supporting roles.
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Bones and All (2022, dir. Luca Guadagnino) - review by Rookie-Critic
Bones and All is an odd one, and it is definitely not for everyone. I've heard every opinion under the sun about this one: it's incredibly gruesome, it's not that bad/I've seen worse, it's tonally inconsistent, it does a great job of balancing its contrasting tones, and on, and on, and on. My opinion is that it's pretty good. I feel that it mostly does a good job of balancing the tones of the gross-out gore and violence with the more standard YA romance beats, but there are times (especially the end) where things start to unravel and the performances feel like they're out of a cheap soap opera. This is strange and feels like a deliberate choice because for a lot of the movie the acting is really good. Timothée Chalamet in particular is very captivating. Taylor Russell, who plays the film's lead character Maren, does this crazy thing where it's almost like she goes dead inside when she needs to "feed." Her and Chalamet have great chemistry and their performances, for the most part, are fantastic. The cinematography and the production design are also remarkable, and for how ridiculous the plot seems when it's laid out plainly, these two aspects of the film make it seem surprisingly grounded.
Grungy middle America is on full display, and the road trip aspect of it all in conjunction with that stellar cinematography and production design allows the locales to almost become characters in the film as well. The movie works on a lot of levels, but its biggest flaw (outside of the ending hitting with a dull thud) is that I'm not entirely sure I know what the point of it all was. I've been told the book it's based on is supposed to be an LGBTQIA+ allegory, and I can see the correlations between a lot of the film's sequences and themes with that, but overall I just don't think it holds together very well when you start picking it apart (and you can definitely pick it apart). As far as the violence and gore goes, I'm sure a lot of people will have a hard time stomaching it, but if you're the kind of person who saw the trailer, understands what kind of film this is, and is still interested in watching it, chances are you've seen way worse than this. None of it particularly bothered me, and the most disturbing scene in the film is not disturbing because of anything having to do with the gore or violence of it. I'm not sure I can recommend this one fully; it's a little too niche for casual audiences and very in-between in its highly contrasting genres for, well, genre fans, so it's a little tough to place. For the most part, I did enjoy it, and I think there's enough to like here to justify a good score.
Score: 7/10
Currently on the absolute tail end of its theater run. You can purchase the movie on YouTube and it's also available for pre-order on DVD & Blu-ray through Warner Bros.