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.