Graphic by Gabby Gagnon ‘24.
By Jesse Hausknecht-Brown ’25
Managing Editor of Layout & Features Editor
An eerie atmosphere surrounds Maren Yearly (Taylor Russell) as she drifts quietly through her first few scenes, which effectively build up to a tender moment of friendship, turned terrifyingly into cannibalism. With Maren and her friend Kim (Madeleine Hall) lying on the ground and shot through a glass table, the audience sees nail polish laid out on the tabletop, visually representing innocent girlhood. The sleepover takes a turn as Maren moves closer to Kim in a seemingly affectionate way before chomping down on her finger.
Director Luca Guadagnino has created another delicate yet powerful film, despite it being about cannibalism. Maren and Lee (Timotheé Chalamet) are two young cannibals in love and on the run across the Midwest in Lee’s royal blue pickup truck. Set in the 1980s, the film is a beautiful and striking ode to the region. The film doesn’t offer a glorified, nostalgia-driven version of the setting. Instead, it is a place ravaged by the opioid epidemic, where mental health support is scarce and queer people lack safety. Broken homes and broken people rest on a backdrop of peaceful farms and grassland.
The subtext beneath the cannibalism felt like a nod to the ways that society treats addiction, mental health and queerness. Having grown up in Iowa, I’ve observed and experienced firsthand the othering that comes with falling into one or all of those categories. Addicts, queer people and people with mental illnesses are pushed to the margins of society, especially in rural areas, and are forced to depend solely on each other.
However, “Bones and All” isn’t demonizing anyone by likening them to cannibalistic monsters. Maren’s condition is portrayed in a sympathetic light: She was, for reasons unclear to her or the viewer, born this way, and she has to learn how to survive.
As with much of Guadagnino’s work, the mise-en-scène — everything in front of the camera, such as the set and props — cinematography, lighting and costumes were carefully stylized in an artistic yet subtle way. Costume designer Guilia Piersanti, who has worked with Guadagnino for many of his films — including “Suspiria,” “Call Me By Your Name” and TV series “We Are Who We Are” — created outstanding outfits for the characters. The clothes were thrifty, campy and fashionable in a timeless yet distinctly 80s way.
The cinematography had amazing wide open, “Nomadland”-esque shots of nature scenes with a lovers-in-the-natural-world “Brokeback Mountain” feel. The sound mixing and score were both romantic and suspenseful. Pieces of the soundtrack contained a melancholy guitar sound that was also reminiscent of the beautiful “Brokeback Mountain” soundtrack.
The acting was phenomenal; Mark Rylance, as Sully, and Chloë Sevigny, as Janelle, both showed off their range as actors in haunting roles. Though she was only in one scene, Sevigny’s performance stays with the viewer long after the film has ended. Michael Stuhlbarg shows up as Jake, a creepy cannibal that Maren and Lee meet during their travels. Stuhlbarg plays opposite Chalamet in a disturbing manner that deeply contrasts the loving father of Chalamet’s character Elio, who he plays in “Call Me By Your Name.”
“Bones and All” has the marks of the teen vampire romance genre, but instead of drinking blood, the kids are eating flesh. The moral conflict of “I don’t want to kill people, but I have to,” still felt, well, fresh.