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As I was heading to the cinema to watch "Bones and All," a question was buzzing in my mind: what could be so exquisite about human flesh butchered and cooked properly for hungry cannibalistic diners? A tough question for someone like myself, who is not completely vegetarian but still prefers vegetables, legumes, and fruit. Nevertheless, despite all my mental reservations on the subject, I did not intend to avoid Guadagnino's latest film, a director with a unique and never banal style. In fact, taking inspiration from the novel "Fino all'osso" by Camille DeAngelis, the director uses the theme of cannibalism as a pretext to hint at other themes.
The protagonist is the young Maren (played by the intense Taylor Russell) who wanders aimlessly across the States (those of rampant Reagan-era consumerist hedonism in the '80s) after being cast aside by a father incapable of redeeming her from her cannibalistic pathology. She must therefore fend for herself and live by her wits, staying on the fringes of official society.
But this does not prevent her from discovering that she is not the only outcast. There are also other cannibals around, with whom to share meals and misadventures. At first, she meets a middle-aged man named Sully (portrayed by an effective Mark Rylance), with ambiguous manners and so sordid and slimy that he inspires a healthy sense of repulsion when he claims that cannibals recognize each other by smell (they apparently reek quite a bit...). But luck would have it that on her path, Maren meets a peer named Lee (the magnetic Timothee Chamelet, an authentic modern James Dean) fleeing from everyone and everything, especially from himself and his desperate condition. Between the two young people, a feeling can develop, strengthened by the common desire to find a more balanced and serene life, at least as they themselves hope, though they are not certain of having succeeded in their intent (and indeed the film leaves us in doubt about the outcome of their efforts).
But as mentioned, the theme of cannibalism is just a pretext. Guadagnino portrays a dramatic story, where everything revolves around the struggles of two young people who have difficulty finding a suitable place in this world. It is still a well-known theme, like the struggle of growing up, transitioning from adolescence to adulthood. Certainly, in the cinematic realm, it is not a new topic since the days of James Dean's films (1950s) onwards, but revisiting the issue from an unusual angle like cannibalism cannot leave one indifferent.
And then, as is typical of many films made in North America, the odyssey of the characters is not only internal but has an external dimension projected in majestic landscapes, from east coast to west coast (and vice versa), in line with the on-the-road parameters so dear to much American literature and cinema. In this, Guadagnino is no less than many other colleagues, and so the viewer watches in fascination the perilous journey of the characters in "Bones and All."
In addition, the director's ability not to overdo the grand-guignol aspects of the plot should be noted. They are cannibals, true, but the horror dimension is very contained and if anything, a strong dose of psychological suspense prevails, precisely because the young protagonists, dropouts and outcasts, lead an existence in constant tension and do not really know what tomorrow will bring.
In short, in my opinion, here is a film that stimulates reflection and has even led me to consider the two young people (Maren and Lee) less horrible than one might imagine. After all, many other humans remain far more dangerous than the two of them, who, under certain impeccable appearances, are capable of even more terrible and criminal acts (reality does not spare us many facts of such magnitude).
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