Bones and All review by Bobby Blakey
One the best things about movies is when you find one that is so not what you expected. I had been hearing about the film Bones and All, but from the description it just didn’t seem to be something I was overly interested in, but after seeing the trailer there was clearly more to it. The film features a great cast including Timothee Chalamet, Taylor Russell, Chloe Sevigny, Andre Holland, Michael Stuhlbarg, David Gordon Green and Mark Rylance from director Luca Guadagnino, but does it offer up that something that helps it stand out or will it get lost in its own hunger?
Bones and All follows Maren, a young woman learning how to survive on the margins of society, and Lee, an intense and disenfranchised drifter, as they meet and join together for a thousand-mile odyssey which takes them through the back roads, hidden passages and trap doors of Ronald Reagan's America. But despite their best efforts, all roads lead back to their terrifying pasts and to a final stand that will determine whether their love can survive their otherness.
I love films that just feel a bit off sometimes while being grounded in the real world. This is one of those films that could have easily just been a loner love story road trip and would have worked and this is that, but with a sinister twist that makes it all the more compelling. It has a gritty tone to it that makes it feel dirty at times, but also like the real world that gives it a feel that works for both sides of it all.
The main cast of Chalamet and Russell are great together. There is a subtle darkness that they are both dealing with that also brings them closer together. It truly is a love story between these two that unfolds in as normal a way as two drifters could while also dealing with the cravings they share that
could tear them a part. My personal favorite is the always awesome Mark Rylance who isn’t in the movie a lot, but his presence is felt. He is both engaging and terrifying to watch as you wonder what he might be up to in the bigger picture, if anything at all.
This is a story that probably shouldn’t work the way it does and never fully explains anything in regards to their hunger, but it’s not really necessary. Yet here it is a film that pulls you in to care about these characters and their journey hoping for the happy ending that you know good and well is unlikely to come. The ending of the film came out of left field to as I guess I got too comfortable to where it seemed like it was going. This was just another element that elevated it to something more than I expected in the best way possible.
It is a slow burn feature that wants you to let the story linger and move along like the journey they are on and you will either be there for it or prefer to get off the road. Decide for yourself and check out Bones and All when it hits Blu-ray and DVD on January 31st from Warner Bros Home Entertainment.