Movie Review
Bugonia pits Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons in a battle of wits and will
Emma Stone in Bugonia.
Few other current directors can evoke strong reactions like Yorgos Lanthimos. Since the Greek filmmaker got his first big exposure with The Lobster in 2015, his films have become the epitome of the love it/hate it dichotomy, with some films lavished with Oscar nominations and others ending up on the worst movies of the year lists. So there’s no doubt that his latest, Bugonia, will divide audiences as well.
On the surface, the film is Lanthimos’ most accessible one yet. Teddy (Jesse Plemons) is your classic conspiracy theorist, blaming his and the world’s woes on corporations and the aliens he believes run them. At the top of his revenge list is Michelle (Emma Stone), who leads a diversified company that includes the Amazon-esque warehouse where Teddy works.
Teddy convinces his cousin Don (Aidan Delbis) that the only way to get the world right again is to kidnap Michelle and convince her to take them to her leader. But what Teddy doesn’t anticipate is the response he will get from Michelle. Instead of reacting in fear after waking up in Teddy’s basement with her head shaved, she uses her assertive nature to try to take control of the situation.
The film is written by Will Tracy, whose recent projects such as The Menu and the HBO series Succession both took aim at the ultra-rich. He does so again here, as Teddy and Don’s modest home in the country, where they keep bees as a side gig, is juxtaposed with the lavish lifestyle of Michelle, who thinks offering her workers the “option” of leaving for the day at 5:30 pm is a big perk.
When the film is focused on this part of the story is when it’s at its most successful. Teddy and Michelle have multiple confrontations while she’s chained up, with Teddy trying to break her by any means necessary, and Michelle pushing back with the only thing she has at her disposal: Her words. The film is alternately brutal and funny as each uses their form of power to try to manipulate the other.
Other elements are, as expected, head-scratching. Lanthimos includes brief black-and-white segments showing Teddy’s mom Sandy (Alicia Silverstone) fighting an unexplained illness, one which inexplicably has her floating in mid-air. Don — and the actor playing him — is autistic, a fact that the filmmakers don’t necessarily have to explain save for the slightly icky feeling it brings up about both the character and actor being exploited.
Stone, working with Lanthimos for the fourth time, turns in a fierce and compelling performance. Her character can be a bit clueless as to how her actions affect others, and Stone rides the line between heartlessness and forced niceness well. Plemons goes against type as a man with possible mental health issues, but he maintains the same level of intensity he’s brought to other recent roles. Novice actor Delbis makes for an interesting presence even as he’s not asked to do more than react to the weird ideas of Plemons’ character.
Bugonia doesn’t have the consistent WTF-ness of Lanthimos’ most outlandish projects, something that has made his most acclaimed films so memorable. But it also contains a fair amount of intrigue and two great actors going head-to-head for much of its running time, so it’ll more than likely end up on the positive side of the ledger for most viewers.
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Bugonia opens in theaters on October 31.
