They’re surprisingly good company. Various grisly shocks aside, the mood is relaxed and optimistic, and the magnetic Russell has no problem holding the viewer’s attention in every scene: this should be as much of a star-making film for her as Call Me by Your Name was for Chalamet. There are a couple of fabulous cameos, too. Another eater, played by Michael Stuhlbarg, is almost as memorably crazed as Sully is.

Eventually, though, Guadagnino’s decision to be so earnest about the gruesome subject matter works against the film, rather than for it. He and his screenwriter, David Kajganish, haven’t put in an urgent plot or any amazing revelations, so we’re left watching two supernatural cannibals meandering around sleepy Midwestern and Southeastern backwater towns for a couple of hours, and that raises the question of whether the hopes and fears of two non-supernatural non-cannibals might have been more compelling. It’s not as if the flesh-munching is an illuminating metaphor for addiction or greed or sexual orientation or anything else. There are hints at these themes, but ultimately, the flesh-munching is just flesh-munching, so it becomes difficult to take the fantastical scenario as seriously as Guadagnino does. He’s certainly made a distinctive and daringly perverse film, but there isn’t much meat on its bones.

★★★☆☆

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