Maren (Taylor Russell) is a young woman learning how to survive on her own, while discovering things about herself that very few people can understand. When she meets Lee (Timothee Chalamet), they join forces and embark on a road trip across America. Despite their best efforts, all the roads taken ultimately lead back to their terrifying pasts and to a final stand that will determine whether love can survive their oddities.
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Writers: David Kaiganich, Camille DeAngelis
Starring: Timothee Chalamet, Taylor Russell, Mark Rylance
Winner of three Independent Spirit Awards and nominated for a countless number of others, Bones and All, directed by Luca Guadagnino, is not your typical midwestern American throwback to the 1980’s you’d expect come to expect. From a filmmaking point of view, there were some unsettling, gothic-like cinematography on display, matching the overall atmosphere of the film and its rather unique story perfectly.
As touched upon, the story was somewhat unique in nature and without trying to provide any spoilers in this review, the flick took the viewer down a slightly different road than most, blending genres such as drama, romance and horror all into one, throughout the one-hundred and thirty-one minute runtime – a little excessive, but at the same time this could be expected, especially when taking into consideration the wealth of slowly built scenes and even slower dialogue.
One area in which I felt the film struggled, was in its attempt to create any likeable characters worthy of becoming emotionally invested in as a viewer. The majority of characters and their backstories seemed rather undeveloped, which wasn’t aided by the repetitiveness of some scenes and soundtrack, as well as general pacing. Ultimately, this came as a surprise, considering the small cast and large runtime the filmmakers had to work with.
In terms of the cast, Timothee Chalamet and Taylor Russell were billed as the lead personalities and shouldered most, if not all, of the on-screen presence. The pair took up roles of Lee and Maren, respectively. Mark Rylance also appeared, adopting the role of Sully, a creepy, unhinged stalker of sorts that was fixated with the character of Maren.
All in all, Bones and All comes across as a rather patchy romance with distinctive elements of horror mixed in. Some scenes or peaceful, while some are grotesque and hard to watch. Despite the flaws, there were some positives, but I’m not sure whether those were strong enough to warrant another watch of this one. It’s worth noting that Bones and All is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
“I don’t wanna hurt anybody.“
Maren – Bones and All
The DC Review Blog - EST. 2020 