Prime Time: Bones And All (2022)

There might be some who would view Bones And All, a romantic drama that shows some people trying to live with a cannibalistic urge, and take the life lessons aspect of it to come up with the pithy alternative title of Hannibal Lecture, but I would be beyond that kind of pathetic attempt at an easy pun, of course.

Director Luca Guadagnino has made great use of a script by David Kajganich, adapting a novel by Camille DeAngelis, to deliver a film that feels impressively grim at times while also feeling very much like a typical Luca Guadagnino film. I find his work very often misses the mark slightly, but this is one of his better outings (although I must note here that I have sadly still to watch the much-praised Call Me By Your Name).

Taylor Russell plays Maren, a girl who has spent her lifetime moving around with, and being protected by, her father (André Holland, offscreen quickly enough, but also delivering some great voiceover work). Her father cannot stick around, however, and he leaves Maren with some advice and information. Traveling alone around the country, Maren meets others just like her, some that seem good (Lee, played by Timothée Chalamet) and some that seem like trouble (including Sully, played by Mark Rylance). Oh, I forgot to mention that Maren is overtaken sometimes by the urge to eat human flesh. Lee, Sully, and others also have the same condition, but not everyone views it as a problem.

The strangest thing about Bones And All, and I am going to assume that this was just me own brain causing problems, was the fact that it kept feeling like a Doctor Sleep offshoot to me. Some plot points are similar, although those same plot points can be found in many other movies, but it was the atmosphere and characters that somehow made me think I was watching something from a world written by Stephen King. I would love to hear from anyone who had a similar reaction, especially if this is a common observation. Otherwise, I will just chalk it up to another example of me being me.

Getting to what the movie is, instead of what my mind kept trying to make it, the cast all work well with the material. Russell is very good in the lead role, believably trying to cope with an unnatural appetite that others have spent time embracing. Chalamet isn’t bad, if less instantly convincing in his role (Chalamet often feels more like Chalamet than a credible new character), and Rylance plays his part so well that he casts a long shadow over most of the film, even without actually being onscreen for more than a handful of scenes. I have already complimented Holland, as the father who discovers his breaking point, and there are a number of effective turns from cast members only given a scene or two in which to make a strong impression. Michael Stuhlberg and David Gordon Green are two highlights, and Chloë Sevigny is another.

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross create another great score, there’s clean and pleasing cinematography courtesy of Arseni Khachaturan, and every decision made allows for the more horrific moments to be presented in a way that shows restraint without complete shying away from the blood and violence (or the bones and all).

Although falling slightly between two stools, despite the best efforts of all involved, Bones And All is a strange and enjoyable drama that just happens to show people with some very peculiar dietary requirements. I liked it, but I am not sure who I would recommend it to.

7/10

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Mubi Monday: Demonlover (2002)

On the one hand, Demonlover is a superficially-dull film about corporate espionage that takes a turn for the dark and twisted in the second half (although there is one crime committed very early on that should clue viewers in to where this particular journey is going). On the other hand, Demonlover is intriguingly transgressive and focused on the main thesis from writer-director Olivier Assayas.

Connie Nielsen plays Diane, a woman who arranges to take over from her superior, Karen (Dominique Reymond), as the company she works for prepares to acquire rights  from a Japanese anime company that will given them ownership of a hell of a lot of hentai. And when they have the product, they need to sort out distribution. Which leads them to delve deeper into the murky depths of the internet.

Whether you like his films or not, and I often like them (with the exception of Boarding Gate), Assayas is a director who always seems to take on projects that allow him to explore something he feels genuinely invested in. That may be the blurred lines between fiction and non-fiction, the power of grief, a turbulent part of history, or the difficulty of ageing within a movie industry that almost always values youth and image above everything else. This time around, his focus is on how we consume media, and how easy it is to feel free to do anything while enjoying anonymity.

What could have so easily been a “do you know where your kids are?” scare piece about the perils of the internet, and we have a number of those already (some of which remain mind-bogglingly highly praised), instead becomes a look at how things can be amplified, online and on screens, for people who have already been acclimatized to more extreme content, resulting in an unending, and unsatisfying, search for the next thing that can seize the attention of consumers. Although less feverish, this feels like an interesting step along from Videodrome, the two covering some similar ground, albeit with different formats at the heart of things.

Nielsen is very good in her role, surprisingly effective at being thoroughly nasty and easy to dislike. There’s also a strong supporting turn from Chloë Sevigny, and Gina Gershon steals a couple of scenes when she appears about a third of the way into the runtime. Charles Berling is the least known (to me) of the main players, but he does a good job in the role of Hervé, the boss who doesn’t realise the real agendas of a number of people working for him.

There’s an excellent soundtrack to help things along, particularly in the first half when things seem happier and less grimy, and a third act that skirts very close to outright horror. Overall, this is a pretty great film that only suffers from the fact that Assayas didn’t dive fully into genre. But, then again, Assayas has rarely let himself be confined by typical genre parameters.

8/10

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Shudder Saturday: Lizzie (2018)

 

"Lizzie Borden took an axe

and gave her mother forty whacks.

When she saw what she had done,

she gave her father forty-one."

Is it even possible to write something about Lizzie Borden without quoting that macabre little rhyme? I think not.

There are a couple of reasons why I decided to watch Lizzie this week, and place the review here. First of all, it's a good story of intrigue and murder. Lizzie Borden surely remains the most famous, alleged, axe murderer in history (unless I am forgetting any other obvious choices). Second, although I have not loved all of the movies that she has been in, I have started to enjoy different performances from Kristen Stewart in recent years. She's actually been as eclectic in her choices as her past co-star, Robert Pattinson, but has received not a quarter of the praise. Is she his equal? I am not going to say. All I know is that my opinion on her changed after seeing her performances in a couple of Olivier Assayas movies (Personal Shopper being a real highlight) and enjoying her flair for the comedy in Charlie's Angels.  With the upcoming Happiest Season (a LGBTQ+ Christmas movie featuring Stewart in a lead role), it's clear that she has been picking and choosing her projects based on an instinct that has allowed her to both enjoy her post-Twilight career and show some more sides of her personality. 

Stewart plays Bridget Sullivan, a new member of staff to the Borden household in this tale. The titular Lizzie is played by Chloë Sevigny. Things start with the discovery of a hacked corpse, and then it is time to wind back and look at the days and weeks leading up to the murders, with the two main victims being Abby (Fiona Shaw) and Andrew Borden (Jamey Sheridan). You have standard family tensions, chemistry between Lizzie and Bridget, and creepy, predatory, abuse from Andrew. There's also an ongoing dispute over the potential family fortune, something that John Morse (Denis O'Hare) wants to keep an eye on.

Written by Bryce Kass and directed by Craig William Macneill, with neither individual having many other full movies to their credit, it's easy to see why Lizzie was viewed as quite an easy tale to make into a solid little biopic/crime drama. Most people tend to be familiar enough with the story, it doesn't need a whole lot of fancy bells and whistles, and there's the enduring allure of it being an "unsolved crime", mainly thanks to how things were handled in the immediate aftermath.

The thing is . . . Lizzie doesn't sell any of that angle. It settles for being a salacious telling of the crime that people think they already know. Want to know that Lizzie definitely committed the crimes? Sure thing, here you go. Blood on her clothing? Hell no, we'll make her naked. A look at the various conflicting and cocked-up evidence that wasn't properly used? Nope. But look . . . naked woman with axe. This is a film that seems to have been written from a basic notion of the crime, everything that has been assumed for years by people who haven't read even a little bit more on the case. I COULD be wrong, but they even seem to get Lizzie Borden's age wrong when the end title card notes her death years later.

Sevigny is very good in the main role, and Stewart works well enough alongside her. They may not give their best performances, but they're saddled with a script that wants to make this nothing more than a fairly standard tale of sex and violence. Shaw and Sheridan also do good work, with the latter having to play up every bad part of his character until he's almost a pantomime villain by the third act (if pantomime villains were also a bit rapey), and O'Hare is fun in his scenes. Kim Dickens isn't given much to do, playing Lizzie's sister, Emma, and the same goes for Jeff Perry, playing Andrew Jennings, the defense attorney for Lizzie.

Considering the various aspects, this isn't a bad film. The acting is good, the look and feel of the film works, even if it tries to make the most of the budget by being made up of mostly interior shots (which is fine, considering the story showing us the growing tension within one household), and it does a good job of depicting the actual act of the murders. It's just a shame that the script feels so sloppily put together, and takes no interesting turns.

5/10

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Mubi Monday: Love And Friendship (2016)

Based on a novella by Jane Austen, Love & Friendship is a sharp and witty period film that provides a great lead role for Kate Beckinsale, being so enjoyable here that it's enough to make you wish she didn't spend so much of her film career as a leather-clad vampire caught in a war between vampires and lycan (and I never thought I would type that sentence).

Beckinsale is Lady Susan Vernon, a widow who is set to arrive at the home of some in-laws. She has a reputation as a renowned flirt, although some say that she is simply someone who creates fine and enjoyable company for those around her. Her main concerns are finding a suitable match for her daughter (Frederica, played by Morfydd Clark) and ensuring her own position in society remains as safe and secure as can be, which is no easy task.

Director Whit Stillman, who also adapted the source material into screenplay form, keeps everything as expected for a period film, with the language and look of the thing as prim and proper as can be, but is able to also make it feel quite fresh and modern thanks to the attitude of the woman at the heart of the main events. Lady Susan is quite the go-getter, and in a manner more overt than most characters we see in this kind of thing.

Beckinsale has a lot of fun in the main role, almost every scene that has her interacting with others has her performing in a way that manipulates them to assist her in whatever her aim is, be it short or long-term. Clark does fine as her daughter, although it's a role that maybe could have been kept offscreen for most of the movie, such is the long shadow of her mother and the seeming lack of personal motivation in the character. As for the main men onscreen, Xavier Samuel is typically handsome and courteous in the role of Reginald DeCourcy, a potential suitor, and Tom Bennett is very amusing as the well-meaning, but quite dim, Sir James Martin. There's also solid work from Chloë Sevigny, as a friend married to a man (Stephen Fry) who disapproves of the friendship, Emma Greenwell, Justin Edwards, and a number of other familiar faces.

Strangely enough, however, when you look beyond the more modern sensibilities that are surprisingly prevalent throughout the film, it's hard not to consider that this is something that still feels far too close to the other, better-known, classic works from this period. Whether it is the mother trying to ensure a good life for her daughter, with sacrifices made and compromises considered, the filtering of rumours and damaging observations through various social circles, or even just the interception of a letter that may cause damage to the parties involved, this is all very familiar fare in some enjoyably vibrant packaging.

It's still worth your time though, and the ending is a particularly amusing "punchline" after all that has been shown beforehand.

7/10

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