Meaning at the Movies | Love Me, “Bones and All”

You’ve probably heard the name Luca Guadagnino tossed around. Whether it was because of his smash hit “Challengers” or his wildly beloved “Call Me by Your Name,” the Italian director has more than made his mark on the film industry. Guadagnino has ascended to the top of my list of favorite directors in recent years, but not necessarily from what you would expect. My favorite film of his arrived to a bit less commotion — “Bones and All.” 

The 2022 film is a daring look at the American Midwest, what it means to really love someone and the journey it takes to begin to find oneself. Oh, and the main characters are cannibals. 

The film centers on 18-year-old Maren, played by Taylor Russell, as she embarks on a journey in search of her mother. Along the way, she meets Lee, played by Timothée Chalamet, and falls in love. Their relationship is truly the beating heart and soul of the story. At its core, “Bones and All” is a movie about connection, about longing to be seen, known and understood.

It is deeply haunting. Every time I watch the film, I can’t shake it off — it lingers and clings to my skin and my mind. This is a film that relishes in lingering. It is slow-moving and character-driven, a movie that holds a lot of space and care for its characters and invites the viewer to do the same. 

“Bones and All” is an incredible feat of going across different genres. It manages to be a horror movie, a romance tale, a coming of age story and a road trip film all at once. The cannibalism of its main characters is presented brutally and blatantly. There is no shying away from it as blood and gore absolutely splatters the film. It is meant to be jarring and intense, to shake the viewer up and make them feel an element of sickness inside. 

The film is driven by consumption, with the needs of its characters to consume others and the needs of the viewer to consume their story. The cannibalism within the film is a clear and striking metaphor for love and understanding. Lee and Maren’s need to feed on humans is directly comparable to their need to be seen and cared for. 

In the end, it seems as if Lee and Maren have found a way to live “normally” as they settle into an apartment in Michigan and a “regular” suburban life. However, this dream is quickly shattered with the arrival of Sully, another eater Maren met along her journey. Sully breaks into their home, attacks Maren, injures Lee and is eventually killed by Lee and Maren. 

The injury Lee sustained in the fight, however, proves to be fatal. As he’s dying, he begs Maren to “eat him bones and all” and “just love me and eat.” Lee’s final act of love towards Maren is to give himself up totally and completely to her, offering all he is and all he has. Lee doesn’t have a life left to live with Maren, so he offers her all that he does have — his body. He is offering her an enduring act of love, the ability to consume him and seemingly carry him with her forever, for him to remain a piece of her even as he departs this earth. 

So Maren eats. She consumes him, bones and all. During this scene, the film cuts between images of Maren eating Lee and shots of various parts of their house now covered in blood, their domestic space effectively destroyed. The song “(You Made It Feel Like) Home” plays over the scene, repeating the lines, “For a minute, just for a minute. We made it feel like home.” These shots, and this song, are the reminder that this home wasn’t truly their home — their real home was each other. Lee and Maren never fully belonged in this space, but they did always belong with each other. 

The final shots of the film, however, are not their now devastated home. Instead it ends in a shot of Maren and Lee sitting on a hillside holding each other in their arms. In other words, the film ends with a reminder that Maren and Lee are forever tied together, forever close, forever each other’s home, even if it’s not quite the happy ending the viewer thought they were getting. 

There is a kind of poetic devastation that comes with this ending, an understanding that even some of the deepest loves are not always meant to last, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t beautiful in their time. To me, this ending is absolutely gut-wrenching, but also so incredibly beautiful. There is so much love and care wrapped into all this pain of the ending, and it feels so grounded and real. 

That realness of emotion is part of what makes this movie so special to me. It carries such weight and this kind of deep ache of love. Every time I walk away from “Bones and All,” I feel it becoming more important to me, burrowing into my soul more and more. This is a movie that welcomes the outsider, that relishes in the difference and that makes space for love in all its complexity, bones and all.