Bones & All: Road Trip through the Midwest

Hey hey... Midwest Muse is back! I am very excited for this week because I will be exploring my favorite film, Bones and All, which takes place all over the Midwest! Bones and All, released November 23, 2022, is directed by Luca Guadagnino and is based on the novel Bones & All by Camille DeAngelis, published in 2015. Set in the 80s, the film follows Maren Yearly (Taylor Russel), a teenage "eater", as she travels across the Midwest with Lee (Timothée Chalamet) in search of her mother. The pair fall in love and meet some interesting characters along the way.

Bones and All is extremely special to me and fully captures my idea of a perfect life (minus the cannibalism, of course). I have watched the film a total of five times so far, and I am sure the number will increase. Guadagnino wonderfully represents the beauty of love, the mundane, and simplicity while simultaneously engaging the audience with a perfect balance of horror and romance. In my opinion, Bones and All captures the Midwest flawlessly and represents one of the most overlooked regions in the United States.

This blog will primarily focus on the road trip Maren and Lee take across the Midwest and some (not all) of my favorite shots in the film! Enjoy and watch Bones and All if you have not already! Minor spoilers ahead.

The Road Trip

Bones and All begins in Virginia, where Maren goes to school and lives with her father. They move to Maryland very early in the film.

Maren takes a bus through Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana which is where she meets Lee.

Lee and Maren travel through Kentucky, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska. Although there are not location marker shots, the pair also travel through Illinois and Michigan. The film ends in Ann Arbor, Michigan where Maren finds a job at a bookstore.

Some of My Favorite Shots

All photos taken from Bones and All (2022) directed by Luca Guadagnino.