Bugonia
Writer: Will Tracy
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Cast: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Aidan Delbis, Alicia Silverstone, Stavros Halkias
Greek auteur Yorgos Lanthimos is no stranger to chastising the fabric of society. Films such as Poor Things, a takedown of the patriarchy and their supposed dominance, or The Favourite — which caustically fostered the idea of a lesbian Queen Anne as a screw you to traditionalism — are prime examples of this. With sci-fi thriller Bugonia (a remake of Jang Joon-hwan's Save the Green Planet!), his critiques of how society handles our ecological climate are thornier, messier and — eventually — more unwieldy than the film can sustain.
Bugonia begins with bees. The planet's pollinators buzz around flowers to a voiceover of Teddy (Jesse Plemons) commenting on their importance within the ecosystem, describing their method of spreading seed as "like sex but cleaner." Cut to Teddy, with his long hair, wispy facial hair and generally unkempt appearance, who asserts that chemical castration is necessary for him and his young cousin, Don (Aidan Delbis) while they do push-ups together, or some "alpha king shit" as Teddy says. Don is an impressionable young man with neurodivergence, so he follows along, his timid reservations shut down by the headstrong, frenzy-eyed Teddy. The two are conspiracy theorists who believe the world has been infiltrated by aliens and that they must capture one so they can broker "peace" talks during a lunar eclipse.
Their supposedly Andromedean target is Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone), the karate-chopping, TIME magazine Woman of the Year girlboss CEO of monolithic pharmaceutical company Auxolith, who has been chosen for her role in Teddy's mother (Alicia Silverstone) hospitalization. This is a Yorgos Lanthimos film, so you can expect nothing goes to plan for the two incel-coded men as Michelle fights back. After some jet-black comedic shenanigans — the men kidnap her while dressed in a beekeeper uniform and a flimsy mask of Jennifer Aniston's face — Michelle succumbs to the two men and is soon dragged into the back of her car where they proceed to genuinely shave her head so she "can't contact her mothership."
All of this, which makes up roughly the first fifteen minutes of the film, is a real treat. Lanthimos's dark humor is occasionally marmite but with Emma Stone bug-eyed on a treadmill, attempting to fix-but-not-really company wide toxicity or doing carpool karaoke to Chappell Roan's "Pink Pony Club," this is an enticing and hilarious set up for a plot rife with thematic juice about how companies do not care about the environment or the means of production. It is a shame to report that this opening isn't sustained.
The helter-skelter momentum that Bugonia sets off with soon tapers out into monotonous and repetitive gesticulating as Will Tracy's screenplay spins its wheels; the boys liberally apply anti-histamine cream to her body as they interrogate and torture Michelle, who incessantly repeats that she isn't an alien. The basement setting where Teddy and Dom hold Michelle captive is a relatively uninteresting setting to spend so long in — as much as it appears to be intricately designed — and it takes until the third act to get outside it. This is where Bugonia finally gets the chance to breathe and allow Lanthimos to fulfill what the opening promises: a gory, unhinged and explosive finale that makes the tepidness of the second act worth crawling through.
Bugonia reunites Lanthimos with several cast and crew. For instance, this is the fifth collaboration between him and Emma after Kinds of Kindness, Poor Things, The Favourite, and the short film Bleat. However, this could be Stone's strongest performance yet, rivaling her Oscar-winning performance from Poor Things. It is, at the very least, her boldest and most physically demanding work yet — and not just because she shaved her head for the role. Equally, Jesse Plemons (previously in Kinds of Kindness) is superb, a demented whirlwind of anger who not only holds his own against the actress but is able to steal the scene from her on more than one occasion.
Other collaborators include Director of Photography Robbie Ryan, whose work with Lanthimos is always an exciting prospect. His work on Bugonia is not as visually splendid as something as surreal as Poor Things, but the DOP shoots Bugonia on textured 35mm VistaVision, which give both Teddy's home and basement a grimy feel, one that feels like you're watching through a soiled coffee filter. We also find Jerskin Fendrix (Poor Things, Kinds of Kindness) returning as composer. His score here is both luscious and brutal in equal measure. Much like Lanthimos can conduct his actors to twist the tone from bleak to humorous without causing whiplash, so too can Fendrix's work on the soundtrack, which violently erupts through the speakers, amplifying everything in its path. This is often done in conjunction with the output from another previous colleague, editor Yorgos Mavropsaridis, whose cuts are made to the tune of brazen brass and strings that screech as loud as a fire alarm.
Bugonia might be a film that collapses under thematic scrutiny — in particular its closing moments that undermine what has come before — but when Bugonia unleashes Plemons and Stone in that third act, not much can touch it for sheer thrill value. It isn't going to turn those who dislike his signature deadpan quirk, but for those who do vibe with it, this is another amusing and demented entry into Lanthimos's oeuvre.
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