Admittedly, I tend to approach a Yorgos Lanthimos film with a lot of caution. The tireless Greek filmmaker has earned a great reputation among many critics and voters, releasing three feature films in three years, all to wide acclaim. First up was “Poor Things,” an amalgamation of Lanthimos’ worst tendencies cranked up to 100. Last year we had the equally bad but even more forgettable “Kinds of Kindness.” This year, it’s “Bugonia”,
Lanthimos brings back Emma Stone for their fourth consecutive collaboration. As Lanthimos’ muse, Stone takes on the bulk of his vision, working within the harsh confines of the director’s harsh worldview. But unlike the carnal exploitation of something like “Poor Things,” Lanthimos only asks him to shave his head for “Bugonia” — a specific request that only serves as a running joke. But “Bugonia” gives us much more to talk about than specific hair choices.
As with every Lanthimos film, you go into it expecting a crazy story featuring offbeat characters who, at one point, run the risk of mentally imploding to one degree or another. That’s certainly the case with “Bugonia,” a wacky adaptation of the 2003 South Korean genre mashup “Save the Green Planet!” » by director Jang Joon-hwan. It’s written by Will Tracy who also co-wrote 2022’s exceptional “The Menu.” And alongside Stone is the film’s true star, Jesse Plemons, as well as Aidan Delbis, a terrific young actor on the autism spectrum. All three deliver in spades.
To be clear, “Bugonia” is dark, cynical and even nihilistic in its merciless criticism of humanity. It’s a film void of hope and bleak outlook that fully manifests itself in gruesome, bloody violence. And yet, incredibly, it’s simultaneously an absurdist comedy with dark humor surfacing throughout the film. Somehow, Lanthimos finds the balance between the two, while tackling such serious themes as alienation, dehumanization, societal breakdown, and corporate duplicity.
Plemons plays Teddy Gatz, a bee enthusiast and rabid conspiracy theorist who lives on his family’s old farm with his neurodivergent cousin and only friend Don (Delbis). When he’s not tending to his handful of hives, Teddy fills Don’s head with a wide array of political, medical, biological, and social conspiracies. His biggest wild theory is that an alien race known as the Andromedans has infiltrated humanity, posing as people in power in an attempt to take over Earth.
Elsewhere, Michelle Fuller (Stone), the powerful CEO of pharmaceutical company Auxolith, is working to improve her company’s public image. In the midst of filming misleading HR videos about diversity and inclusion, she also misleadingly touts a new culture at Auxolith where the needs and well-being of workers are a new priority. But his facade of “benevolence” is showing cracks with edicts such as “Don’t hesitate to leave early”, followed by the qualifier “Unless you have things to do.”
Teddy is convinced that Michelle is an embedded Andromedan who is setting things up for the alien invasion. So he manipulates Don into helping him kidnap Michelle with the intention of using her to negotiate a full retreat with the Emperor of Andromeda. After kidnapping her, Teddy and Don put Michelle to sleep before taking her to the basement of their farmhouse. There, they shave her hair to prevent her from communicating with her mothership and lubricate her with antihistamine cream to prevent her from being tracked. From there, they must wait four days until the lunar eclipse, when its mothership can arrive undetected.
This is all completely absurd and Michelle is quick to explain to her captors. But Teddy is resolute in his distorted beliefs and ruthless in his responses to Michelle’s resistance. Interestingly, although his life is marked by self-ruin, Teddy’s madness is rooted in tragedy that becomes more and more visible as Lanthimos moves him forward. This is not enough to excuse his cruel and/or maniacal actions. But it gives meaning to his personal agenda while also making Teddy something more than an aimless case.
As for Michelle, she’s no angel herself. The film certainly makes us root for her in her efforts to escape. But while it’s true that she’s a victim, Lanthimos frequently reminds us that Michelle is cunning and fierce to the bone. Her shady business acumen makes her a formidable adversary for Teddy, leading to a fascinating confrontation between two iron wills. She is equally ruthless with Don, aggressively manipulating him by cleverly using his humanity as a weapon.
Things escalate quickly in the final 30 minutes as the violence escalates and the suspense builds to a boil. This leads to a gonzo ending that is completely absurd but hits like a ton of bricks. It’s an emotional exclamation point that emphasizes the film’s most pressing theme. There are a few visible holes that aren’t filled in, which is not unusual for a Lanthimos film. But it’s still a problem that harms both the audience and the story. Yet “Bugonia” overcomes its problems in a way most of Lanthimos’ other films have not, making it the director’s most satisfying effort to date.
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