Bones and All

As a massive admirer of Luca Guadagnino's work, it saddens me to say that Bones & All is disappointing.

Even though the cinematography and atmosphere are beautiful and what you would expect from the visual master, the film suffers from tonal shifts and a very talky script that is only saved by a fantastic turn by Mark Rylance. His menacing presence is the feature only redeeming quality.

The narrative is overstretched by a terribly slow pace reinforced by wooden dialogues between lovers that don't have much chemistry to begin with. Timothée Chalamet is clearly miscast as his sweet and soft demeanor don't match with the supposed danger and inner violence of his character.

Star of the show, Taylor Russell is beautiful and haunting. She also carries much of the movie on her frail shoulder. But the underdeveloped family moments and repetitive travel adventures don't help to build much of her personality. So when we get to the core horror aspect of the movie it mostly fails. Most "gory" moments are contrived, shoehorned inside the romance. They are too few, tonally all over the place and end up underwhelming.

After the masterful Suspiria, I was really expecting Guadagnino to deliver on the horror front but I think he got sucked away by the gorgeous landscapes and forgot to build up tension or fear. Bones & All ultimately ends up being a tiresome teen romance road trip interrupted by bizarre gory scenes. I will just rewatch Kathryn Bigelow's masterpiece "Near Dark" which I think would have been the perfect inspiration.

I saw it for Timothée Chalamet. And his work is just admirable. But the great job is offered by absolutely impressive Mark Rylance, giving a version of evil absolutely fantastic.

No doubts, Taylor Russell represents the perfect option for role of Maurene.

One of virtues - the atmosphere of Reagan United States. In same measure, the touch, especially in the meetings, of South Gothic. Another virtue - the gentle poeetry, the travel becoming, in some measure, scene by scene, yours. The exploration of family, in the perspective of young adults is another good point.

The sin - maybe, the paradoxal hurry, the characters remaining more sketches .

But , indeed, a beautiful film, deserving the atention each minute from its two hours.

Timmy plays the same role in everything, it would be interesting to see how he plays roles as he gets older and is not the moody, brooding, 20-something sex symbol that his team has marketed him as. But I mean they've done a good job as this TikTok generation is all about the shiny image on the outside with very little depth. He's attractive in this and for what it was did a good job, I found him likable and sympathetic and charming. Again he plays a bi-sexual character (I think) and the audience is teased and gaslighted again as he's only dated women in public in his real life and has never flirted with a man publicly, but does it in all these movies because it's "cool" (when it's pretend) while real lgbtq people don't live these pretty lives with beautiful straight acting men like Timmy wanting to charm us. The movie is a fantasy. I would like to see real representation one day. And I had a little bit of a sour taste in my mouth because I couldn't tell for sure if he was actually bi-sexual or just using a closeted man to take advantage of him. So that character plot point was a miss for me as it was brief and never discussed again in the film. Also his tears towards the end felt feigned, didn't seem like they were natural.

I didn't think he and the actress had any chemistry, didn't buy their love story, she's kind of bland and one note with zero charisma. Her vibe was as if she had taken a Benadryl everyday while shooting this film, she was half asleep the entire movie. I liked a lot of the small supporting actors and their naturalness, the cinematography was beautiful as were the scenic locations and the 80's nostalgia. Mark Rylance was very good in this and a great villain because you never really know if he's a villain until the story progresses, he just always irks you the wrong way but he's so good slowly revealing himself. I've heard people say he's "the greatest" living male actor, and I don't think that's true. If anything he's proof you can be well regarded by playing yourself because I always see him in all his roles, I know it's Mark. Even when he's really good. Or maybe great acting really isn't about "losing yourself" but finding yourself, interesting thing to think about.

Bottom line the movie has its grotesque moments and it has its pretty ambient atmosphere but I found it to be a one time watch for me. It's pretty forgettable as it doesn't really leave you with anything. I just walked away with feeling, okay.

Before I start this review, I have to admit I have a soft spot for Luca Guadagnino and his directing style, which really speaks to me on an emotional level.

The movie is not perfect, but I enjoyed watching it, as to me this mixture of gory horror and on the road romance is quite new.

The plot is quite thin and the pace of the movie is slow and indefinite, but to me this is not negative: in the two hours of screentime I was never bored, and I sort of felt like I was on the road along with the protagonists.

The lead actors were really good, and in my opinion this was one of the best performances by Timothée Chalamet, whose chemistry with Guadagnino is undeniable. I think he was particularly suited for this role, because his innocent face and body perfectly communicated the nature of his character, conflicted between his monstrous instincts and his good heart.

The best performance was anyway delivered by Mark Rylance, whose creepy character Sully was great for keeping the tension high throughout the whole movie.

I really loved the poetic atmospheres of the road trip scenes, so typical of Guadagnino.

The negative aspects that can't be denied are the poor development of the characters, which makes it hard to root for them, and the quality of the dialogues, which are often shallow.

Personally I didn't appreciate the ending scene and the related dialogue especially.

Despite some negative specs, I would absolutely suggest seeing it, if you don't mind some pretty gory scenes.

I had high expectations for this film given some of the cast, especially Timothée Chalamet, who never disappoints. I was really excited to see this movie given the controversial and disturbing topic that attempts to combine romance with its horror. I am so frustrated by the fact that I truly believe this could've been "a win for cinema", as a famous critic has stated the movie was. I felt like all the pieces of the puzzle were there, but they didn't make a picture. Like others have said, there were so many plot holes, build-ups that lead to nothing, and cramped scenes with little time to involve yourself in the characters. The connection between Maren and Lee didn't feel believable, nor did it feel like they were given enough screen time to make that happen.

It felt like the director tried to capture too much in 2 hours and it ended up being a scattered slideshow of artsy scenes with gore and confusion. The 5/10 stars I give is for the acting, mainly on the part of Chalamet and Rylance. My other 5 is lost to the direction, editing, and script of the film.

The trailer and hype was 10x better than the movie itself, so all you need to watch is that. This could've been a true masterpiece, and I desperately wanted it to be. I found myself trying to be convinced it was good, but ultimately faced the honesty that it fell through. A chance for beauty, lost to the wind.