On the surface, Maren Yearly (Taylor Russell) seems like your average teenager, living with her dad Frank (André Holland) in 1980s Virginia. It's the latest in a series of relocations for the duo and she just wants to fit in with the crowd at her new high school. But Maren has a secret that reveals the reason behind their nomadic lifestyle and prevents her from truly being a normal girl. While enjoying a casual sleepover with friends, she submits to a compulsive urge she's had all her life - a cannibalistic desire to consume human flesh.
And with a swift devouring of a friend's finger, the plot of Luca Guadagnino's "Bones and All" kicks into motion. As they've done numerous times before, Maren and her dad activate their escape plan. But this time is different, as Frank decides to abandon her to fend for herself, leaving a tape detailing their lifelong struggle and his reason for leaving. In it, he speaks of her mother's similar affliction, which prompts Maren to embark on a cross-country mission to find her and get some answers.
As Maren makes her way across middle America, she meets several other "eaters" on the open road. Among them is an obsessive older man named Sully (a suitably creepy Mark Rylance) and a young man named Lee (Timothy Chalamet). When she meets the latter, the pair strike up a deep connection that sustains them through their struggles to survive and control their urges.
Despite their best efforts, however, the duo are unable to resist both their cannibalistic nature and the violence they attract. And in depicting this, Guadagnino deftly uses visual and aural storytelling, through explicit scenes of gory violence and vivid descriptions of the same by various characters. Meanwhile, the sparse score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross further adds to the brooding atmosphere.
As gruesome as the film is though, it's also disarmingly romantic, with the tone and dialog becoming positively poetic during its intimate moments. Indeed, despite their faults, Maren and Lee are empathetic characters, due in no small part to the compelling performances from Taylor Russell and Timothée Chalamet. They bring a tenderness and vulnerability as the plot effectively explores the tensions between nature vs nurture.
Ultimately, "Bones and All" achieves impressive balancing act between terrifying audiences and enchanting them. In fact, it sometimes accomplishes both simultaneously. It's truly a remarkable feat, resulting in one of the year's most stunning pieces of filmmaking.
