Armie Hammer issues aside, Call Me By Your Name stands as one of the most thoughtful and sumptuous queer coming-of-age movies in recent memory. So we never thought director Luca Guadagnino’s reunion with his star Timothée Chalamet would be quite so… bloody.
But that’s exactly what Bones And All appears to be. Described as a “cannibal love story,” the horror-romance is adapted from Camille DeAngelis’ singular YA novel of the same name. And it looks downright bone-chilling.
In it, Chalamet plays Lee, a nomad afflicted with an insatiable hunger for flesh. Yikes. But the real protagonist is Maren, a young woman with the same affliction, played by up-and-coming talent Taylor Russell (Waves, Escape Room). Maren has been living a transient life with her father (André Holland), but when he can no longer help cover for her cannibalistic tendencies, he flees, leaving Maren to fend for herself.
Related: Hopelessly devoted: movies that relish the joy of first love
Alone and scared, Maren sets off on a road trip “across Reagan-era America” in search of her mother. Along the way, she encounters a number of others like her—some good, some terrifying—including the beguiling Sully (Mark Rylance) and Lee, with whom she forms an instant connection.
Scored by Leonard Cohen’s “You Made It Darker,” the first trailer for Bones And All provides a look at its unique blend of the romantic and the macabre. There’s any number of scenes featuring our stars—Chalamet in particular—splattered in blood, which leads us to believe this will be one messy courtship.
Per Deadline, the film’s producers describe it as “a liberating road odyssey of two young people coming into their own, searching for identity and chasing beauty in a perilous world that cannot abide who they are.” Maren and Lee may be a pair of fine, young cannibals, but the story uses their uncontrollable urges as a metaphor for otherness and queerness—ultimately, these are just two adolescents trying to find where they belong.
Bones And All—which also stars Chloë Sevigny, Suspiria scream queen Jessica Haper, and Michael Stuhlbarg (another Call Me By Your Name reunion)—received largely positive reviews after premiering at the Venice Film Festival. It’ll begin rolling out to theaters nationwide on November 18.
Watch the first full trailer for Bones And All below:
Related: Here’s all of the queer, must-see movies and TV shows headed your way this fall
surfnspy
“a liberating road odyssey of two young people coming into their own, searching for identity and chasing beauty in a perilous world that cannot abide who they are.”
No, the world cannot abide that they are murderers who apparently eat their victims.
This couldn’t sound less appealing. What kind of person would be interested in such a grim story?
bachy
On a recent thread I asked, “Does anyone know if there are any new films that are not about serial killers?”
Someone replied, “Yes. Check out ‘Grumpy Old Men’ (1993).”
Sigh.
Joshooeerr
“What kind of person would be interested in such a grim story?” Well, every vampire movie (or TV series) ever made is about serial killers. Some of them are hugely sexy (True Blood for example). And, of course, vampire stories are invariably metaphors (often for suppressed sexuality, very often for homosexuality and homophobia). I guess it depends how literally you take these things, and whether you’re capable of seeing beyond the actual plot to the metaphor beneath. I guess some people just don’t have very well developed imaginations.
connor larkin
You’ve my sympathy, such an anal, fundamentalist literalism.
Den
Little seems more homophobic and stupid than considering cannibalism or serial murder as a “metaphor for queerness”. It a metaphor only evangelicals would love. I don’t buy it. And I have never seen a vampire film I would consider sexy in the slightest. Unless you find desperation, adiction, evil, psychopathy, gore and murder sexy (all things evangelicals and fundamentalists equate with the “sin” of honosexuality.
Peter
Queerty: Fix the video-playing issues, please. They start, play about 5 seconds then will not continue. I’ve given up trying to watch anything on this site.
bachy
I’ve been having difficulties too. If I click PLAY on any featured video, the Trending on Queerty ad video at the bottom of the page starts playing automatically. The result is a hodgepodge of incoherent, overlapping noise.
I have to stop the featured video, scroll down to the Trending video, turn it off, return to the featured video and start from the beginning.
I”m on the very latest MacBook Pro, so it’s not my system. Seems like some kind of programming problem.
Neoprene
Move on from your iPhone 2.
ollie78
first they vilify Armie Hammer for his cannibal fantasies… now they are making a cannibal love story. Hollywood… go figure.
still_onthemark
They won’t cast gay actors in gay roles, and they won’t even cast cannibals in cannibal roles!
KyleMichelSullivan
Yeah…Jeffrey Dahmer wasn’t enough of a cannibal because he stayed in one town and the cops let him get away with it because he was white and his meat was dark. Now we’ve got The Hunger Games in a way that carries true meaning in the title…
Fahd
I’d recommend that Chalamet get a new agent. Given the subject matter and intended audience, I can’t see how this film (hiccup) will contribute to advancing his career.
Max
Chalamet’s got multiple projects in the works, so if this film doesn’t work it won’t matter. I think Chalamet said yes to the project because someone young like him finds the storyline interesting and less mainstream.
Kangol2
No thanks, but it sounds like Oscar-bait for Hollywood’s favorite twunk Chalamet. 🙁
bachy
QUEERTY: Please review NETFLIX “Manti Te’o – The Girlfriend Who Didn’t Exist.”
Neoprene
Timmy the Twunk, some Leonard Cohen fleshing out the soundtrack and human cuisine. Sounds delicious. Bon Appetit everyone!
inbama
I guess the MAP controversy wasn’t enough.
Is “cannibal” the next identity? LGBQTIAC+?
connor larkin
Join CA, Churls Anonymous
scotty
TC aka the Kwisatz Haderach, please report to vancouver island for a beard ride session and please bring EM and jared Leto thanks. id eat that bones and all.