Bones and All

Bones and All (2022)

Directed by Luca Guadagnino

Screenplay by David Kajganich 

Based on the novel, "Bones & All" by Camille DeAngelis 

Stars: Taylor Russell, Timothée Chalamet, Mark Rylance, André Holland, Michael Stuhlbarg, David Gordon Green, Jessica Harper, Chloë Sevigny, and Anna Cobb

People have been raving about this movie on film Twitter. I needed to be in the right headspace to watch a cannibal love story. Today is the day. I am slowing warming up to Twinky Timmy and his acting. It's not there yet, but I have hope. This movie could have been great, but falls short.

Maren (Russell) is trouble young woman who had to move from place to place because of her insatiable hunger for human flesh. Her family cannot deal with it anymore and leaves her to her own devices. Maren sets out on a quest to find her birth mother that abandoned her when she was little. During her journey, Maren meets people just like her such as the eccentric Sully (Rylance) or the loner, Lee (Chalamet). Lee and Maren form a bond. They found their tribe.

The first hour of the movie was fascinating. I wanted to delve into Maren's world. Her hunger. I wanted to see more of the raw visceral nature of cannibalism. It was touched on here, but I felt it was lacking. The last forty minutes of the movie derailed so hard that it was hard to recover. Revelations and character motivations come out of left field. It had me scratching me head. What the hell was happening?

I have seen two Guadagnino films now. I have noticed that his movies either look pretty, but lack substance or they have the bones -- no pun intended-- but the story suffers from poor pacing issues or underdeveloped characters. This movie could be have been good with cutting a couple of scenes here and there.

Rating: 7/10