Film Review: BONES AND ALL (2022): Luca Guadagnino’s Dramatic Horror Film Features Some Of the Year’s Best Acting

Bones and All Review

Bones and All (2022) Film Review, a movie directed by Luca Guadagnino, written by David Kajganich and starring Timothée Chalamet, Taylor Russell, Mark Rylance, Kendle Coffey, Andre Holland, Ellie Parker, Madeleine Hall, Christine Dye, Sean Bridgers, Anna Cobb, David Gordon Green, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jake Horowitz, Marcia Dangerfield, Jessica Harper and Chloë Sevigny.

Luca Guadagnino’s powerful new horror movie, Bones and All, features three of the year’s most provocative and, arguably, most original performances of the year. Taylor Russell is the movie’s main star and joining her in a pretty meaty role is Hollywood heartthrob Timothée Chalamet. As far as the casting of the film goes, these two young performers are perfectly matched. They have a striking intensity about them that makes their characters come alive through their work on screen. Mark Rylance is the other actor in the movie who is simply brilliant. This is the type of movie that draws the viewer in right from the beginning and doesn’t stop making an impact until long after the closing credits have rolled.

Set during the 1980’s, Russell portrays a young woman named Maren who is looking to hang out with some of her female friends late at night. When Maren sneaks out of her mobile home to go meet with them, everything seems pretty innocuous. That is until Maren bites into her friend’s finger, tearing it right off. Maren flees the premises and her father (Andre Holland) immediately takes her on the run before abandoning her altogether. The father leaves her some money and a tape recorded message and that’s it. She must then learn to fend for herself.

So, why did Maren rip that young girl’s finger off? She is a blood feeder, something like a vampire but one who can come out in the sunlight. She travels on a bus with only a birth certificate as identification and soon is called over by a mysterious, much older man, Sully (Rylance). This man claims to know all about what Maren is and what she needs to survive and he takes her into a house where an older woman is revealed to be having serious health problems on the floor of a bedroom. She is a perfect candidate to feed on. Sully is weird and when he appears again later in the movie, Maren admits she doesn’t trust him. She has every right to be suspicious because he’s an oddball. Rylance frightens the viewers beyond a reasonable doubt with very compelling work in this picture.

When Chalamet enters the picture as a character known as Lee, a woman with a child in a supermarket is having an interaction with a rude man and Lee tries to help the lady out. Maren is there shoplifting for survival purposes. Lee has ripped jeans but is ultra cool and when Lee and Maren get to talking, they recognize each other as fellow blood feeders. When Lee and Maren go to a carnival together, Maren gets hungry and Lee kills a carnival worker (Jake Horowitz) who, it is later revealed, has a family that will send people out to find out what happened to him. Thus begins a road movie/love story where the two try their best to survive against the odds as they travel through America.

Jessica Harper plays Maren’s grandmother who Maren seeks out and finds. Harper is excellent in her scene with Russell and the two actresses are amazing to watch. Russell, in particular, captures her character’s confusion perfectly while Harper conveys sadness, anger and sorrow. Eventually, it is revealed that Maren’s mom is alive and she is in a mental facility. She’s named Janelle and she’s played with fierce intensity by Chloë Sevigny in a brave performance. The scene between Maren and Janelle will frighten you and is a true stand-out in the picture.

The movie builds to a literal bloodbath. It’s violent, intense and the ending is adequately prepared for through the earlier events of the movie. Towards the very end of the film, there is also some product placement which is significant from the time period the movie is set in. It’s one of the few times, seeing old versions of products such as Pop Tarts and Dawn dish-washing liquid works wonders in a movie.

Chalamet and Russell are like a finely conducted opus together. Their scenes are always amazing to behold under Guadagnino’s accomplished direction. Chalamet has some emotional scenes where he really hits it out of the park and Russell is a revelation as she almost carries the entire movie on her shoulders. In the showy role of Sully, Rylance has never been more effective on screen in a terrifying performance that will knock your socks off. It’s a fine piece of screen acting that will hopefully be remembered come Oscar-nomination time.

While Bones and All can struggle at times to live up to the perfection set by Kathryn Bigelow’s masterpiece, Near Dark from the 1980’s, the new picture is fascinating in all its riveting scenes which are virtually impossible to look away from. This picture is competent and has a lot of depth to the premise. If it hits a few false notes at the end, that’s only because we like the characters so much that we want the best for them but the movie may have other plans.

This is ultimately a movie about survival and pursuing love against all odds. Bones and All will capture the viewer’s attention from the moment it begins and will never let go. This is the type of movie that can sit with you for days and is one of the most brave and daring movies of 2022.

Rating: 8.5/10

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