Year of Release: 2025
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Starring: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Aidan Delbis, Alicia Silverstone, Stavros Halkias
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 8
Watch it on Amazon
Synopsis and Review
The prolific writer/producer/director Yorgos Lanthimos is back, following "Poor Things" and "Kinds of Kindness", both of which were showered with accolades and positive audience reactions (the former more so than the latter). "Bugonia" which Will Tracy adapted from the film "Save the Green Planet!" written by Jang Joon-hwan, follows the story of Teddy and Don, two cousins who live together, trying to make ends meet. Teddy works in a fulfillment center, while Don stays home (he is slightly autistic). Teddy's mom is comatose after participating in a clinical trial for a drug named Auxolith which went awry. The cousins live in a rural area, which allows Teddy to develop his apiary right in his backyard. The cousins decide to abduct Michelle Fuller, the CEO of the pharmaceutical company that is behind the Auxolith. Teddy believes she's an alien, an Adromedan, and that her species is in reality killing the Earth's honeybees, and generally enslaving humans. They imprison her in their basement, and shave her head to prevent her from communicating/sending signals to her species. They also cover her body in antihistamine with the same purpose. Teddy's plan is to negotiate a meeting with the Andromedan emperor before an upcoming lunar eclipse. Michelle is shocked to realize the situation she finds herself in, and tries to reason with the cousins as much as possible. Her incredulity increases as Teddy reinforces his plans, leading her to reason with him that her company acted poorly towards his mother, and that they should have been more generous with their settlement. After torturing her with electricity, the cousins move her upstairs for dinner, but that eventually descends to a physical fight that is only interrupted by the appearance of the local law enforcement. Teddy quickly shifts his tactic as he knows the agent quite well from his childhood.
Much like the best films on his filmography, "Bugonia" is ripe with both an irreverence but also surreality, all the white still addressing problems that are very much pertinent, and of our current days. The film smartly moves at a pace where we progressively know more about Teddy, his life, his challenges, leading us the audience to question his sanity - just how much of his grief from witnessing his mother's pain and health challenges has in fact affected his mental health? His close relationship with Don also renders him and his perspective more relatable, as he is supporting Don, logistically and emotionally, as Don does not have any additional family. On the other hand, Michelle is described and introduced as more of a generic cypher, someone who is a successful businesswoman, a quasi Theranos figure, who is horrified to find herself kidnapped, but also under the extraordinary accusations from Teddy (and Don). Sadly her character doesn't have quite as much depth as Teddy, but she does introduce the bewilderment/astonishment from her point of view, of a reasonable person being accused of being an alien, by a man who is clearly distraught, someone who has been pushed to a breaking point due to emotional distress. Yorgos Lanthimos illustrates this set up perfectly, bringing authenticity to both Teddy and Michelle's universe, which helps materialize who these figures are. It's a film where the tone, the performances, the universe that is created, is perfectly illustrated. As the third chapter unfolds, the film continues to surprise with unexpected choices from the director, but all these very much synced with what has been illustrated thus far. The cast is uniformly great, particularly Jesse Plemons who has one of the best roles so far from his career: Teddy is an amalgamation of so much trauma, pain, but also hope, which makes him such an interesting character to witness. He gets solid support from the always great Emma Stone, Aidan Delbis, and Stavros Halkias. The production team is also impeccable, including Robbie Ryan's cinematography, Jerskin Fendrix's score, James Price production design, and Jennifer Johnson's costume design. It's a solid film from a great storyteller, one that is worth watching and appreciating.
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