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Bugonia It’s one of the best movies in recent memory that captures what it feels like to be alive right now. Because of this, it belongs to Yorgos Lanthimos The deepest and most timely workHere he’s joined by new colleague Will Tracy, the satire site’s former editor-in-chief Onion And a writer on a similar cut-throat series inheritanceTracy, then, remains at the center of the great circus show of contemporary America, and when combined with Lanthimos’ trademark deadpanWe have been provided with a true chemistry wonder: violent, absurd, current, fantastical, clever, and unexpectedly heartbreaking.
It is adapted from Jang Joon Hwan’s film Save the Green Planet! (2003), was always meant to feel at least a little insulting. Yet it takes nothing more than Tracy and Lanthimos to make its premise – a conspiracy theorist kidnaps a CEO, tricking them into believing they’re an alien – uncomfortably plausible in our real-life landscape of Internet rabbit holes, loneliness epidemics and AI-induced psychosis.
Currently, the world feels like someone is playing a joke on his deathbed, and the fact that no one knows whether to laugh or cry about it is part and parcel of why everyone is losing their minds. Lanthimos ensures that his film follows suit. Take, for example, his and Tracy’s choice to be CEO here, a woman named Michelle Fuller, played by the director’s famous actress Emma Stone. He is the head of a pharmaceutical company, his kidnapper is Teddy (jesse plemons) is responsible, among other things, for the decline of bee populations.
She represents performative morality in its most sinister form, announcing that her employees are now free to leave at 5.30pm (“New culture, no more unpleasantness!”) – of course, that is, until the job is done. So, you don’t exactly want to believe his snide invocations around the “politicization” of his imprisonment. And when Teddy shaves his head and applies antihistamine cream all over his body (to reduce the extraterrestrial neurotransmitters, you see), you want to laugh at how he looks like a failed attempt at an Uncle Fester costume.
And yet, just as much Bugonia Making you aware that Mitchell has always weaponized his penis to maintain an image of innocence, Stone will still highlight these small, disorienting little moments of humanity (or supernaturalness, perhaps?). She and Lanthimos are a perfect pairing, as she can push for the new and the wild – from Frankenstein’s monster remixes to bald, supposed aliens – both dramatically and comedically, while maintaining tight control over tone.
The same is true of Plemons’s Teddy, who speaks slowly, deliberately, like someone who has extensively rehearsed his persona. He insists on his “humanitarian principles”, yet we see something very sinister beginning to emerge – is this really a religious crusade, or just an excuse to incite patriarchal violence? We’re on a moral seesaw here, fittingly accompanied by the Stravinsky-esque outbursts of Gerskin Fendrix’s score.
At the center of it all is Teddy’s cousin Don (Aidan Delbis), who is brought in as a co-conspirator. He’s an autistic character written with complexity and nuance, and played by an autistic actor – which is an extremely rare thing. It is hinted that Don has been abandoned by his family; Teddy is really the only person he has ever felt safe with. What happens when their view of Teddy is challenged? Delbis plays the pain beautifully. You can practically see the world falling out from under him.
While it has been argued that Lanthimos harbors an active disdain for other people, Don reminds us that there is a touching streak of empathy to be found in even his most nihilistic stories. Hope BugoniaMost of it is lost. But not completely.
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos. Starring: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Aidan Delboise, Stavros Halkias, Alicia Silverstone. Cert 15, 118 min.
‘Bugonia’ is in theaters from October 31