Bones and All  ★★★★

ITALIAN director Luca Guadagnino first came to prominence with his beautiful romance Call Me By Your Name released in 2017.

Timothee Chalamet, a relative newcomer at the time, played a young man who shared an transformative summer relationship with an older man.

Even though it’s a horror film with some realistically gory moments, Guadagino’s latest, Bones and All, can also be considered a companion piece to Call Me By Your Name.

Set aside the fact that the central characters are struggling to deal with cannibalistic urges and you have another beautifully presented, acted and nuanced love story.

Perhaps the screenplay by David Kajganich, based on the 2015 novel Bones & All by Camille DeAngelis, doesn’t always get the balance right between these two elements.

But, provided you can contend with the gory moments, I defy anyone not to be moved by the story of Maren and Lee who meet on the road after both escaping traumatic events and bond over their mutual discomfort with the apparently genetic condition they have inherited.

Taylor Russell and Chalamet are excellent in the lead roles and there is terrific support from a stellar cast including Mark Rylance, Michael Stuhlbarg and Chloë Sevigny, all of whom make significant impacts in their key scenes.

As with Guadagnino’s other films Call Me By Your Name and the 2019 Suspiria remake, Bones and All is wonderfully photographed with an excellent score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.

But I think the main reason for Guadignino being named Best Director at this year’s Venice International Film Festival was the sheer audacity of successfully combining romance and cannibalism.