Bones and All is a 2022 romantic horror film directed by Luca Guadagnino from a screenplay by David Kajganich, based on the 2015 novel Bones & All by Camille DeAngelis. Set in the late 1980s, the film stars Taylor Russell and Timothée Chalamet as a pair of young cannibals who flee together on a road trip across the United States of America and develop feelings for each other. Michael Stuhlbarg, André Holland, Chloë Sevigny, David Gordon Green, Jessica Harper, Jake Horowitz, and Mark Rylance appear in supporting roles
Plot[]
Maren Yearly is a teenage girl living in Maryland under the care of her father Frank. With her having displayed cannibalistic tendencies ever since she murdered her babysitter at the age of three, Frank abandons her shortly after her 18th birthday, having become overly-distressed due to Maren's lack of remorse for her actions. He leaves behind some cash, her birth certificate, and a message on a cassette tape, in which he states that he hopes she will someday learn to overcome her urges.
Maren decides to travel to Minnesota, which is listed as the birthplace of her mother Janelle, who left her when she was an infant. Whilst waiting at a bus station, she is approached by an older man named Sully, who recognizes her as a fellow "eater" because of her scent and leads her to a house owned by an elderly woman near-death. After the woman dies, Sully begins feasting on her corpse, and Maren, though reluctant, joins in. Sully expresses interest in becoming a father figure for Maren, but she leaves the house soon after.
Whilst shoplifting supplies in Indiana, Maren witnesses an intoxicated male customer harassing a woman, before a young man named Lee forces the man to leave. Maren later spots Lee outside, feeding on the man's corpse, and the two make introductions. Lee offers to help Maren find her mother, and the two head off in the victim's stolen truck. The two grow to fall in love with each other during the journey, and during a brief stay in Lee's hometown in Kentucky, Maren notices Lee's unwillingness to disclose certain aspects of his past, such as his father's absence and the reason why he avoids being spotted around town.
Maren manages to track down the home of her maternal grandmother, Barbara, who, despite having had no prior knowledge of her existence, informs her that Janelle voluntarily admitted herself into a psychiatric hospital in Fergus Falls several years prior. There, Maren finally reunites with her mother, who she is shocked to find has self-cannibalized her own hands. However, a nurse then gives Maren a letter that Janelle wrote to her in case they were to ever meet again, which concludes with Janelle's belief that Maren would be better off dead than living as a "monster". Janelle proceeds to attack her daughter before being restrained.
Disturbed and unwilling to go down the same path as her mother, Maren leaves while Lee is asleep, before being approached by Sully, who has been stalking her. She turns down his offer to become companions, causing him to curse at her in anger before departing. Once he realizes Maren is gone, a devastated Lee decides to return home.
Maren eventually makes her way back to Kentucky. She runs into Lee's younger sister Kayla, who reveals that, on the night of her and Lee's alcoholic, abusive father's disappearance, he beat both of his children before mysteriously vanishing while Kayla ran to get the police. Having been initially considered the prime suspect, Lee was cleared once it was proven that the blood found on him was his own. Maren and Lee reunite and rekindle their relationship, before deciding to flee westward. Lee reveals to Maren that he was responsible for his father's disappearance, having killed him and eating his corpse before hiding it away. He tearfully asks Maren if she thinks he is a bad person, but she declares her love for him, and they vow to abstain from cannibalism and attempt to lead a normal life together.
Sometime later, the two are shown to be living happily in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Maren returns home one day to find Sully, who murdered and cannibalized Kayla on the way, has broken into their apartment, and he threatens her at knifepoint, bemoaning her past rejections. After Lee arrives, they succeed in killing Sully, but Lee is fatally wounded in the struggle. As he bleeds out, Lee expresses his wish for Maren to eat his body as he dies. Maren frantically refuses at first, but eventually gives in.
Cast[]
- Taylor Russell as Maren Yearly
- Timothée Chalamet as Lee
- Mark Rylance as Sully
- André Holland as Frank Yearly, Maren's father
- Michael Stuhlbarg as Jake, a cannibal
- Chloë Sevigny as Janelle Kerns, Maren's mother
- David Gordon Green as Brad, a cannibal
- Jessica Harper as Barbara Kerns, Maren's grandmother
- Jake Horowitz as Lance, a carnival worker whom Lee picks up
- Kendle Coffey as Sherry
- Anna Cobb as Kayla, Lee's sister