BUGONIA Reviewed by GREG KING
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Stars: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Aidan Delbis, Alicia Silverstone, Stavros Halkias.
More inventive bravura weirdness from Greek auteur Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things, etc). The black sci-fi/kidnap comedy thriller Bugonia is loosely based on the little seen 2003 Korean film Save The Green Planet from Jang Joon-hwan, but co-screenwriter Will Tracy (The Menu, etc) and Lanthimos have added their own quirky touches to the material.
Conspiracy theorist and beekeeper Teddy Gatz (Jesse Plemons) believes that aliens from the nearby Andromeda galaxy are planning to destroy the Earth. Together with his dim-witted neo divergent cousin Don (Aidan Delbis) Teddy hatches a plan to kidnap Michelle Fuller (Lanthimos regular Emma Stone), believing her to be an alien. Michelle is the high powered CEO of Auxolith, a pharmaceutical company which ran some experimental treatments on Teddy’s mother Sandy (Alicia Silverstone) which left her bedridden and comatose. They shave her head to prevent her communicating with her mother ship and smother her body with antihistamine cream.
What follows is a battle of wits between Michelle and Teddy and Don, who imprison her in their basement. Teddy tortures Michelle to expose her as a powerful alien queen. They intend to use Michelle as a tool to force the Andromedan aliens to abandon their plans and leave Earth alone. Michelle has until the next lunar eclipse in four days’ time to negotiate a meeting between Teddy and the aliens.
Much of the film’s action is confined to the inside of Teddy’s house, and Lanthimos ramps up the claustrophobic tension. The film almost plays out like a three handed drama. Bugonia explores themes of power, conspiracy theories, the environment, science, corporate corruption, alienation and even childhood trauma.
The production design from Oscar winner James Price (Poor Things, etc) is superb and makes Teddy’s house almost another character in the film. Price has also given Michelle’s sleek corporate office a striking modern look. Regular collaborator Robbie Ryan’s cinematography is atmospheric with its use of a distinct colour palette, odd angles and closeups. Jerskin Fendrix’s nerve jangling score also heightens the tension. Tilly’s script mixes humour, satire, craziness, and some intelligent dialogue in a film that has a couple of neat twists that keeps audience unsure where it is all headed.
This is Stone’s fifth film for Lanthimos, and it seems the pair have a great rapport. With her shaved head giving her an unusual look, Stone still shines and gives a gritty, cold, determined and feisty performance. She throws herself wholly into the role. As the paranoid and obsessed Teddy Plemons exudes craziness, menace and desperation in equal measure, but Plemons also makes him sympathetic. Their exchanges crackle with energy and tension. In his film debut Delbis is also very good as the more simple, impressionable and naive Don.
Bugonia offers up something of a bleak worldview which suggests that the planet would be better off without humans. The final coda will come as something of a surprise, although its very loopy nature is a perfect fit for Lanthimos given his absurdist cinematic repertoire. But surprisingly it makes the off beat Bugonia one of Lanthimos’s more accessible and crowd-pleasing films.
★★★☆
