Call Me By Your Name, actor-director duo Timothée Chalamet and Luca Guadagnino’s eloquent, Italy-set 2017 romantic drama, debuted at London Film Festival in October 2017. Five years later, I’m at London Film Festival 2022 attending the UK premiere of their new film, Bones and All, cowering as an elderly woman next to me screams at a girl’s finger being chomped off on screen. It’s a mammoth jump in tone, and I absolutely love it.

The film centres around the beautifully sophisticated character of Maren in ‘80s-set America, played by the extraordinary Taylor Russell (Escape Room, Waves). Maren is left by her father as a teenager after her cannibalistic tendencies become too much for him. She goes on a little road trip, stumbling across Lee (Chalamet), a disenfranchised fellow cannibal who aids her in her journey to find her mother who abandoned her at birth. Meanwhile, however, they’re being stalked by older cannibal Sully, played by Mark Rylance (The BFG, The Phantom of the Open). Despite said shift in theme, Guadagnino once again hits all of the nails on the head with stunning visuals and cinematography, a magnificent soundtrack, and a wonderfully chosen cast who all dazzle in their respective roles. It feels odd to sympathise with a girl who devours humans, yet Russell somehow manages to sway us in that direction. Timothée is, well… Timothée. Not much needs to be said; despite moving from Arrakis to cannibalism within the space of twelve months, he cracks yet another difficult role with complete and utter ease. Rylance manages to find the perfect balance of comedy and Norman Bates-esque creepiness.

Unfortunately, however, with the simultaneous release of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Matilda the Musical and Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery this week, Bones and All has been overshadowed despite its Chalamet star power. Whilst Wakanda Forever sits at a comfortable $339,970,596 in the US box office at the time of writing, Bones and All sits at just $1,504,537. Bones and All wasn’t even shown in any of my local cinemas upon its release this week in the UK, as all of the screens were being invaded by Marvel and Netflix. Unfortunately, it seems as if this is the future of cinema. Coincidentally, this week, a video of Anthony Mackie from a few years back surfaced on Twitter as he offered his opinion on modern cinema: 

“There are no “movie stars” anymore. Like, Anthony Mackie isn’t a movie star, The Falcon is a movie star. And that’s what’s weird. It used to be with Tom Cruise and Will Smith and Stallone and Schwarzenegger. When you went to the cinema, you went to see the Stallone movie. You went to see the Schwarzenegger movie. Now, you go see X-Men. So the evolution of the superhero has meant the death of the movie star. And that’s the fear now, because you’re now making movies for sixteen-year-olds and China. And that’s it. You think of some of your favourite movies growing up, those movies wouldn’t get made today. Goonies? Wouldn’t get made today. Halloween? Wouldn’t get made today. The Thing? Wouldn’t get made today.”

Mackie summaries so aptly the situation with modern cinema, a perfect example of which is the simultaneous release of Wakanda Forever and Bones and All. Of course, this situation could be an exception, as Black Panther has been so avidly popular from the moment the first film was released in 2018 due to it being a first in black representation and also due to the tragic passing of Chadwick Boseman in 2020. However, this seems to be the current situation with cinema. The indie, standalone film is being blasted by films stamped with the names of big corporations. People want security; they know Marvel and Black Panther are popular, and will therefore go to see Marvel. On the other hand, despite Chalamet’s star name, Bones and All is being massively ignored. Alternatively, this could be due to its violent nature and age rating (in the UK), however most films carry violence nowadays anyway.

So I beg you: if Bones and All is showing at a cinema near you, please go and support it. You won’t regret it. It’s stunning and by far my favourite film of the year, without a shadow of a doubt.