WARNING! This article contains spoilers for Bones and All.Timothée Chalamet and Luca Guadagnino's second movie together, Bones and All, comes five years after their success working together on Call Me By Your Name, but which of the two movies is better? Call Me By Your Name started Timothée Chalamet's rise to A-list stardom, but it similarly was the movie that made Luca Guadagnino a big name in the world of directing. Timothée has worked with several major directors such as Christopher Nolan, Greta Gerwig, Wes Anderson, and Denis Villeneuve and yet there was still so much anticipation that he would once again work with Guadagnino. Bones and All shares a similarity with Call Me By Your Name in that they are both romances, but other than that the two are very different movies.
Timothée Chalamet might star in both movies and Guadagnino as a director has cemented a style for himself, but the movies tell two very different stories. Call Me By Your Name is an intimate story of a young boy named Elio who falls in love with his father's summer intern, Oliver, when Oliver comes to visit the Italian Villa of Elio's family. Bones and All follows several cannibals known as "eaters" across the United States' rural Midwest and has two of them, Maren and Lee, fall in love with each other. They might both be coming of age stories about love, but on the surface one is a soft slow burn while the other is bloody and at times terrifying, and yet both of them are outstanding films worth comparing.
Bones and All vs. CMBYN: Which Timothée Chalamet Performance Is Better
Timothée Chalamet has the advantage of more screen time in Call Me By Your Name since he's the protagonist, but his role in Bones and All is still major. Both times he plays a young character on a journey of self-discovery. In Bones and All he feels a bit more distant, slowly opening himself up to Maren (Taylor Russell) over the course of the movie and delivering probably his best moment at the end of the film as he helps Maren kill Sully and then begs her to eat him. The Bones and All ending might disgust viewers, but Timothée is at his best during it. However, his most memorable scene of his entire career occurs in Call Me By Your Name, right at the end as he stares into the fire. It's the moment that made it clear Timothée Chalamet would be a Hollywood star. What sets apart his performance in Call Me By Your Name is that he shines from start to finish, embodying Elio perfectly and making his character painfully real and relatable. There's a reason why it is his most iconic role and will be hard to ever top.
Luca Guadagnino's Direction In Bones and All vs. Call Me By Your Name
Between Bones and All and Call Me By Your Name Luca Guadagnino has cemented himself as a director that can tell stories with gorgeous visual displays, beautiful sensual moments, and lots of love. In Call Me By Your Name, Luca is at his most calculated. He makes sure that every shot contributes toward letting the audience feel deeply for Elio, crafting a super personal story. With Bones and All, Luca can't be as careful with the camera because of the aspects of horror, some of which will leave Bones and All audiences terrified and disgusted. While Bones and All is still a gorgeous love story below the surface, it feels a bit more frantic with its direction and some of the creative decisions behind the camera are questionable at times. It still has plenty of gorgeous visuals, but it's difficult to compare it to something like Call Me By Your Name, where even the smallest details are so well planned. The camera moves carefully to depict the sensitive nature of the story and Oliver and Elio even tell stories just through the way they look at each other thanks to Luca's direction.
Is Bones and All's Story Better Than Call Me By Your Name's?
Both stories are technically controversial, but the perception of each is quite different. Bones and All might have characters who could be considered morally wrong, but cannibalism is a hot topic right now and it won't be viewed too negatively. It will certainly gross a lot of people out, but anybody who can look past the blood and violence of the movie will find a very heartwarming message. Maren is growing up and discovering who she is on her own, but being a cannibal makes her much different than almost everybody around her. When she meets Lee, she falls in love with someone who understands her for all she is, and she has no parts of herself that she needs to hide. It's a love story worth admiring, and particularly relatable for young people who are trying to figure out their place in the world.
On the other hand, Call Me By Your Name stirred some controversy with a story that might age poorly. Not to mention, one of the leads being Armie Hammer, who likely won't be acting again anytime soon due to multiple allegations against him, taints the image of the film even more for those who revisit it. The age gap between the two leads in the movie definitely made it difficult for many to connect with the story, but a majority of people who watched Call Me By Your Name still praised it. Lots will defend the age gap by saying that the age of consent in Italy is much lower than the United States, and that this relationship was especially normal during its 1983 setting. In addition, many will argue that the age gap is crucial to the story and Elio's growth as he becomes a man and begins to understand the world.
Whether this relationship ruins the story or not comes down to the viewer. Nobody can predict how the movie will be discussed in the future, but topics like incest taking over major shows and movies hint that Call Me By Your Name will survive controversy. Regardless, Bones and All presents a story that warrants much more analysis because there is so much to explore below the gross surface. Many won't even see it as gross because of how the story paints the relationship between Maren and Lee in such an intimate way. It's also a story that most fans could relate to more. Elio is a very wealthy boy in Call Me By Your Name, whereas Maren and Lee are struggling to survive. Not to mention, the concept of feeling different from everyone is a struggle most people can appreciate. Both stories deal with identity and growing up, but Bones and All presents the subject in a more innovative and exciting way.
Why Call Me By Your Name Is Better Than Bones and All
It's hard for Bones and All to compete with the impact that Call Me By Your Name had, both culturally and for the careers of those involved. Timothée Chalamet is now the face of Dune, a major franchise, and it all started with Call Me By Your Name. Bones and All has plenty going for it, particularly with the beauty of its emotional story. Call Me By Your Name's story certainly doesn't lack emotion though, and it exceeds Bones and All in cinematography, score, performances, and more. It's a movie that is still discussed a lot five years after release and one that gained lots of awards attention. However, Bones and All is still very new, so the impact it has and how it is viewed in the future is yet to be determined. It's possible that the debate between Call Me By Your Name and Bones and All is just starting.