By Mark Fields
Another Provocative Oddity from Director Yorgos Lanthimos
One can greatly sympathize with the bleak circumstances that Teddy (Jesse Plemons) and Don (Aidan Delbis) are facing in Bugonia, the newest film from director Yorgos Lanthimos. The modern American economy has savaged their nondescript small town. Drugs and booze and hopelessness have hollowed out their friends and neighbors. And tragedy has struck closer to their own dilapidated home and family.
Desperation has driven Teddy in particular to seek some sort of grand unifying explanation for all this misery, and he finds it down the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories that is the Internet. Teddy convinces himself – and then his eager-to-please cousin Don – that the hard-driving CEO (Emma Stone) of the Big Pharma company down the road is an alien, part of a group intent on subjugating the human race. Teddy decides to kidnap this space invader and force a confrontation with their off-world emperor.
Hapless as these would-be heroes are, their efforts don’t go well, and much of the rest of Bugonia is devoted to the slow unraveling of their plan, sometimes funny and others downright brutal. And it’s intentionally difficult to know who to side with in this dynamic. Stone’s CEO character is clearly a victim here, but as the story progresses and we learn more, we also gain some measure of understanding of the motivations of Teddy and Don.
Director Lanthimos seems drawn to characters such as these, dreamers and aspirers interacting with worlds that are aligned against them. We see a similar dynamic in his earlier films such as The Lobster, The Favorite, and Poor Things (which also showcased Emma Stone).
The performances of Plemons and Stone are especially strong. With a unique mix of menace and pathos, Plemons has been so good in supporting roles in other films, and it’s good to see him in a vehicle that puts him front and center. Stone and Lanthimos have had a strong working relationship. One of her two acting Oscars was in one of his films, and she was nominated for yet another.
It’s challenging to provide a full critique of Bugonia without discussing its resolution, but no spoilers will be revealed here and so a thorough analysis will have to wait. A more gritty, realistic film than Lanthimos’ delightfully theatrical Poor Things, Bugonia is nevertheless provocative, engaging film that will spark spirited conversation and debate.
Official Trailer
