Bugonia

Had 2025's BUGONIA had a crude Hollywood tagline, it might've read, possibly in all caps, "IS SHE? OR ISN'T SHE?!"  Thankfully we were spared such nonsense, but that is what director Yorgos Lanthimos' latest, a science-fiction black comedy, poses.  What you'll be wondering until the third act.  Teased by Will Tracy's screenplay right up to the relevetory moment.  Sorry, invisible audience, I don't say things like "the big reveal".  I really hate when people turn verbs into nouns these days.  But, I digress...

Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone, in her fourth collaboration with the director) is the exacting CEO of pharmeceutical conglomerate Auxolith.  She's high powered, tough, yet repeatedly tells employees that they are free to leave at 5:00, to achieve that ever elusive work/life balance.  As long as they have their work done and met their deadlines, of course.  It's a "new era" after all. 

Nutjob/conspiracy theorist (is that redundant?) Teddy Gatz (Jesse Plemmons) and his special needs cousin Don (Aidan Delbis) kidnap Fuller one day.  Right in her driveway.  They will keep her captive in the basement of their house.  Teddy is convinced that Michelle is an alien, part of a species that are killing honeybees and are slowly planning the Earth's destruction.   He's also understandably pissed that his mother lies comatose after her participation in a clinic trial sponsored by Auxolith.  

Michelle's hair will be shorn and her body covered in antihistamine cream to prevent her from sending distress signals to fellow Andromedans, who he believes are due to arrive on Earth in four days, during a lunar eclipse.  Teddy's clearly thought this through.  He coerces the vulnerable Don to be all in, even to go as far as ingesting meds to cause castration.  In this critical mission, one must not be distracted by primal urges.

I see my tone in describing the plot of BUGONIA is a bit caustic.  Maybe I'm making this sound like a B-movie with an A-movie budget? The filmmakers are far more ambitious than that, though while quite heady this film - a reimaging of a South Korean sci-fi from 2003 called SAVE THE GREEN PLANET! - is surprisingly straightforward both in plotting and theme.   You might think Lanthimos is a total misanthrope by this film's bold climax.  Quite ballsy, it is.  And perfect.  Little ambiguity to be had.

You could say likewise about Stone and Plemmon's performances.  They match each other nicely.  This essentially being a chamber piece, the claustrophobia abetted by Robbie Ryan's photography really amps up the intensity generated by the actors.  Though poor Alicia Silverstone is given little to do as Teddy's mom.