[REVIEW] Taboo and Cannibal Romance — Bones And All
Curious and intelligent Maren (Taylor Russell) only wants to belong and making new friends in a small town, Virginian highschool hasn’t been easy. Sneaking out to a sleepover against her overprotective father’s wishes takes a turn for the worst when Maren bites the finger off of her new-found friend, discovering who she really is: an eater—a small minority of outcasts who lurk purposefully on the periphery of society consuming human flesh to survive. Maren’s father, Frank (André Holland), takes her and flees to Maryland to start their lives again, evading authorities, a routine that Frank seems all too familiar with. It is here that Maren’s father leaves her on her own to her fate as an eater.
Luca Guadagino’s (Suspiria, 2018) Bones and All is a brilliantly gory adaptation of Camille DeAngelis’ bestselling young adult novel, a tale of taboo adolescent love and discovery. The screenplay written by David Kajganich (Suspiria, 2018) focuses on 18-year-old Maren is left to defend herself in the 1980s America with nothing but a birth certificate and an audio cassette containing her father’s version of her story/origins. Maren sets off to find the answers of who—or what—she is from her mother, another eater. After meeting the disturbingly creepy Sully (Mark Rylance), another eater who smelled Maren half a mile away, Maren makes her way through small towns by bus to reach her destination. Navigating her way across the poverty-stricken margins of Midwest America, Maren meets eccentric runaway teen, Lee (Timothee Chalamet), a young, apathetic man who just wants to make it home to Kentucky to teach his sister how to drive.
Joining Maren on her travels to Minnesota to find out the horrific truth from her mother, Lee reveals the animalistic nature of the ‘eater’ lifestyle, the nature that Maren tries to deny and reject. Maren learns the truth about eaters and that there are more like her who live out on the fringes of society. The relationship between the two spirals into an intense romance further deepened by their instinctual need to feed. Chalamet as Lee is the perfect counterbalance to Russell’s Maren as the pair learn more about themselves through their self-discovery of shared experiences and eating. Lee seems to have already abandoned all hope and relinquished his moral compass to his true nature, Maren representing the apprehension towards embracing her cannibalism.
Sound plays a crucial part in Bones and All, mostly feeding is heard and not seen, only in small parts does the audience witness the devouring of human flesh. However, the sound of consumption and the salacious nature of eating is contributed to the sound design. On top of the gluttonous sounding effects used for eaters, the soundtrack and scoring is of notable design. Written by Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) and Atticus Ross (Bird Box), the score amplifies the 1980s’ centric atmosphere and setting that the film establishes. Supported by tracks including: Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division, Lick It Up by KISS, and Ultraviolence by Lana Del Ray setting a soundscape for a violently impactful slow burn of a movie.
Cinematographer Arseni Khachaturan captures the desolate and dilapidated elements of rural America during the period. Businesses are small and the towns are empty because of their isolated locale. The beautiful landscapes shot in wide angle prop up the metaphors portrayed throughout the film: abandonment, isolation, exclusion, and hope. The analogy of journey shown through the wide open roads and travel of the twosome, the hardships they face and the endless opportunities that could come from the life of living “normal”.
Even though the ending is one of expectation and cliche, it doesn’t reduce the impact of the grief and heartache that follows its resolution. Bones and All serves as a tale of transformational journeys through the lens of those excluded from society, the impact reverberating through a community of drifters. This story of self-discovery and all-consuming coming-of-age will break your heart in the most uncomfortable of ways.
