'Bones And All' Review: The Next Great Queer Horror Movie Has Arrived

Timothée Chalamet again complicates your relationship with him.

The it-boy, who wowed critics and fans alike with his gripping performances in Call Me By Your Name , Ladybird and Little Women , took Bad Boy on fire with his portrayal as a cannibal in Bones and All to a whole new level . . On the surface, a road movie of a teenage runaway who goes on a killing spree seems to follow badlands or born killer traditions. But in the hands of director Luca Guadagnino ( Susspiria , Call Me By Your Name ), this bold adaptation of Camille DeAngeli's YA novel closes in on Interview with the Vampire and delivers a gripping tale of strange love and the bloodshed of discovery. self.

In this Call Me By Your Name mini-reunion, Chalamet plays a young, attractive strip dancer named Lee, who is lucky enough to meet recently evicted Mare (Taylor Russell), who finds herself on a shaky quest to regain her long lost daughter. find mother. . The couple soon realized that they were both "eaters", essentially cannibals born to crave human flesh. Their hilarious date is anything but murder and a rash decision to meet and get away - in a stolen truck, no less. But from their first look together, it was clear that the two see something in each other that the whole world craves.

Maren and Lee go hunting together. You'll seek the truth about Maren's missing mother while avoiding other cannibals whose cruelty and weirdness are so unsettling. But can life on the run bring them anything other than pain?

Beneath her skin, Bones and All is a strange love story.

Yes yes. Maren is a young woman and Lee is a young man. However, in the film, Lee is portrayed as sexually fluid in his desires and mocked with gay slurs about his clothes. Additionally, the cannibalism in Guadagnino's adaptation of DeAngelis' book serves as a metaphor for weirdness.

Before you freak out, consider that whimsical lust has been at the heart of horror movies ever since James Whale gave us Frankenstein , a tale in which a man's desire to marry comes into conflict with his desire to find the right man. of his dreams to build. Does this fit a bit with the actual plot of the movie? Sure, but for decades America's endemic homophobia has forced Hollywood filmmakers into the weird coding room, from the mother-obsessed psychologist to the bloodsucking domestic partnership in Interview with the Vampire . These terrifying characters defy gender norms, find lasting relationships in same-sex relationships, and fight society's fears of viewing them as monsters. Bones and All continues the tradition with a future story set in the Reagan era.

Here, sexual desire is combined with the cannibalism of the first sleepover, where temptation quickly escalates into a horrible bite. In Lee, Maren saw someone who understood and shared that wish. Together they explore this dark craving, driven by the need to eat, but they fear finding someone to share this way of life with. Like Interview with the Vampire, the scenes in which people are devoured have an element of sensuality. Characters undress or emerge from a murder scene with bare hair. They pant and snort while biting, biting and digging their victims. But unlike Interview with the Vampire , Bones and All doesn't allow viewers to sympathize with its eaters.

Bones and All is very difficult and not for the faint of heart.

Do you remember the porn food photos in Guadagnino's I Am Love ? Remember that camera patient who captured every twist and detail of a delicious dish? Now imagine the focus and glamor being applied to show off a man's nipples bitten right on his chest.

Bones and All doesn't retain the use of blood like Guadagnino's terrifying Suspiria adaptation. Even a hardcore horror fan like me gasps as the flesh is torn and consumed here. Such gruesome content might be out of place with the film's dreamy tone, drifting month after month from state to state in a blissful haze of lust and crime. However, Guadagnino uses revulsion in the cannibalism scenes to reflect Maren's self-loathing, which originated in the Ronald Reagan era, when preemptive conformity was the order of the day and gay people were dying of AIDS in front of him. apathetic presidents. His father taught him that his desires were wrong and needed to be hidden, and he did...until he couldn't take it anymore.

In her search for her mother, Maren finds the chosen family in Lee. He also encounters some cautionary tales, like a cockroach running amok (Michael Stuhlbarg's "Call Me By Your Name" on the gripping performance) and a strange old loner (Mark Rylance, who is both wonderful and creepy). But as she begins to trust who she is and what she wants, the portrayal of violence changes. His final murder is no less bloody than the first, but it's shot in a way that almost mimics a love scene, emphasizing connection rather than destruction. In doing so, Guadagnino creates an arc of Maren coming of age through self-love (and yes, fictional cannibalism).

Timothée Chalamet and Mark Rylance are breathtaking in Bones and All.

Chalamet brilliantly embodies Lee, a dream boy who can turn into a nightmare. Her slender body, messy dyed pink hair, and rows of ragged floral blouses appear like Leonardo DiCaprio's thrift store version of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet . Lee, literally the lion of the poor, boasts of all the luxuries but on a shoestring budget.

Poverty is the key to understanding the two main lovers who - like many young LGBTQ people - are shunned or ostracized for their will, so live on the streets and loot where they can. In this storm of crisis, Chalamet came across as calm and arrogant to calm Maren's last nerves. But he wasn't sedated, and the pain would be a growing catharsis that was as terrifying as it was strangely intoxicating.

In stark contrast to Lee is Sully, a potential mentor who maintains a soft tone with a menacing edge. Oscar-winning actor Rylance ( Bridge of Spies ) could claim Best Supporting Actor if the Academy can read the dark scenes. The British actor with his beloved grandfather's mug walks the sharp line between loving and disturbing. In a series, you might want Maren to follow Sully, a quirky but protective weapon. Then your skin may be covered in bumps because your whole body wants you to run away and wishes you could drag Mare with you. With a hard stare or a slight hiss, Rylance can do a 180 that will make your head spin and your spine tingle.

But for all that, Bones and All is a Russell film. His role is far from being the most revealing, composed of dumb looks and cautious speeches. But it's on purpose. Maren is a young woman who has long been pressured to fit into the small box of what society says she will spend most of the film crawling behind the walls she has built. As her vulnerability grows, her stony exterior constantly crumbles, giving us access to her desires and her pain. Russell's content slowly but surely builds on Maren's journey, juxtaposing the impressive screen presence of her ominous co-stars without trying to eclipse them. His role was not a flash, but a slow burn that ignited in the last act and made the audience blush.

Like I Am Love and Call Me By Your Name before it, Luca Guadagnino Bones and All is a romance so sensual it lingers on your lips like a lover's touch even after they're gone.

In his latest work, he takes physical horror to express the brutally societal-fueled homophobic self-hatred in Reagan-era America. By featuring modern it-boys to remember those who came before him, he draws an older audience into the familiar stream of youthful lust. With its cast of dazzling young talent and an established supporting cast, Guadagnino delivers a steady stream of intensity, whether it's cannibalism or mating scenes. They are our unwavering guides through this world of spit, throat and blood. And despite all the mayhem, mayhem and murder, the film reveals a deep empathy for young gay men desperate to be understood and loved.

In the end, Bones and All is as romantic as it is terrifying. In that case, it's not just a weird horror gem, it's one of the best movies of 2022.

Bones and All was recognized by the 60th New York Film Festival. The film hits theaters on November 23.

To the Bone | Official Images [HD] | netflix