‘Bones and All’ is a deliciously dark piece of experimental art that will make you squirm in your seat

When you first start walking as a toddler, you take a gentle step on the ground. Find your balance on one foot and then place the other to stand on both feet. Slowly you begin moving forward, holding onto your parents, guardian, siblings, or simply objects around you.

Once you perfect the balance on two feet and grasp the idea of walking, you learn to firmly stand upright and walk without support. And eventually you can run.

Now, if you’re a non-vegetarian, picture the same analogy.

Typically, all meat-eaters start out playing it safe. You have eggs, then move on to chicken, then try some steak or pork sausages. Then you occasionally experiment with the delicacies of the world. Perhaps some caviar, crickets, frog legs, or even some monkey brain?

The world is your oyster (no pun intended)!

The same analogy applies to Bones and All, except it’s the journey of a girl walking alone to uncover the root of her dietary requirement – cannibalism.

There are films that you can go in blind. You don’t need to watch the trailer, promotional materials, or even see the poster before you decide to watch them.

Bones and All is not one of them. It’s the stuff of nightmares.

It is not for everyone and will most certainly leave the audience divided in its fate and box office success.

But allow me to perhaps convince you of how deliciously dark, creative, and impressive this piece of experimental art is.

The film dives dramatically quickly into its premise of cannibalism and wastes no time to shock as well as ease the viewer into an unfathomable world of someone tempted to devourer human flesh.

It traces the life of a teenager Maren Yearly [Taylor Russell] who’s been abandoned by her father overnight, leaving behind only some cash and an audio cassette with a recorded message by her father.

What follows is her journey navigating through life on her own, carrying the burden of a haunting secret and meeting people along the way that shape her into adulthood.

Sully [Mark Rylance] emerges (literally) as a father-figure to guide Maren early on in her journey. His character provides a sense of normalcy for Maren as well as the audience to understand the desires and conflicts of a cannibal. A concept too bizarre for words.

The film doesn’t show them as outsiders, but as ordinary people. They live among us, as one of us, using their cannibalistic radar to find their own and resisting the urge to kill and consume.

But that’s not all.

Before you get too comfortable with the paradigm, we’re introduced to another complex character Lee [Timothée Chalamet], grappling with his past, present and the future. Thus, shifting the genre to a coming-of-age romance that delves deeper into the human psyche and raw emotions.

Maren and Lee develop a special bond – rejected by the world, united by their desires.

They travel across the country learning to survive, fend for themselves, fighting their demons, and learning to accept and love. They yearn to fit in with the norm.

A heart-breaking moment in the film is a mature Maren says “Let’s be people… Let’s be them for a while.”

A lifestyle neither of them have experienced or enjoyed in a world that wouldn’t understand or accept them.

Speaking of the performances, Bones and All is a brave choice of any actor to portray such unconventional characters. The lead cast of Russell, Chalamet and Rylance play their parts of “eaters” with absolute conviction.

Credit ought to be given to Director Luca Guadagnino for shaping the actors and bringing out their best in a terrifying world.

Also, cinematography by Arseni Khachaturan skilfully captures the little towns, highways, back-roads, and fields across America, setting the right tone for the film.

The only drawback is the film’s pace that loses momentum between the high-powered sequences that are far too long and slow. The duration of the film drags quite a bit; A crisper narrative could’ve / would’ve been better.

It would be unfair to divulge in all the details and the nuances in the film as it’s an experience to be had.

It is a 130 minutes of coming-of-age love story, blended with raw drama, romance and horror. “Raw” being the operative word.

Bones and All will make you squirm in your seat, test your limits and ultimately desensitize you to the most unsettling sight on reel.

It is an unusual tale of love, desires, morality, friends, trauma, inner demons that can either be too consuming or be consumed. It is about setting your own rules and creating your boundaries.

However, all said and done, it is a film that perhaps shows you how to accept and embrace life as it is – the good, bad and the ugly – bones and all included !