Just one year after the double whammy of Poor Things and Kinds of Kindness, Yorgos Lanthimos is back with his own particular brand of weird and another great collaboration with Emma Stone. A more contained story than their previous efforts, Bugonia is nonetheless full of big ideas.
We meet Teddy (Jesse Plemons), a beekeeper with a burning vengeance against a huge pharmaceutical conglomerate, headed up by CEO Michelle (Emma Stone), for its destruction of the environment and subsequent impact on the honeybee population, and its part in his mother’s illness. He is convinced that Michelle is an alien intent on destroying humanity so concocts a plan, roping in his cousin Don (Aidan Delbis) and making various (unhinged) preparations based on what he believes he knows of the alien creatures. The two kidnap Michelle, holding her in the basement as they try to get her to admit to being an alien and order her kind to stop their plan to destroy Earth.
This is Lanthimos back on form after Kinds of Kindness and delves further into the absolute jet-black comedy that has characterised his previous work. The humour and the film’s uneasiness go hand in hand and, if unattuned to the Lanthimos ways, could come across as obtusely bizarre. Bugonia maintains a consistent tone throughout, keeping it engaging, weird, unsettling and funny, all at the same time. The film sets you up to be unsure of who you should be empathising with; rationally, you’d think your sympathies would lie with Stone’s character, kidnapped and held against her will, with Plemons’ conspiracy theorist willing to go to lengths to prove what he believes to be true. However, Plemons’ character is not painted as a pure villain – he also retains some audience investment, both through his background and apparent intentions, but as his methods progress this wavers more and more. The battle of the wills and conversations between our two leads build tension throughout and really cause you to shift alliance and convictions in who you believe (and with whom the power lies), with the film keeping you on your toes.
All aspects of the filmmaking come together to produce an uneasy atmosphere and keep a film set predominantly in one room engaging. The score and cinematography in particular are striking and unsettling. However, the film would not work without truly excellent performances at its core and Bugonia certainly delivers. Stone and Plemons are on top form, matching each other every step of the way and crafting characters that are both believable and suspicious; they each elevate the film hugely. Delbis is also great in his role and the smattering of other actors each bring something to the story and flesh out the film’s claustrophobic world a little more.
It feels like a great late-night or midnight movie; perfectly weird, mysterious and unpredictable with some powerhouse performances doing exactly what the film demands of them. The film has a lot to say about a whole range of topics – environmentalism, corporate greed, internet radicalisation and isolation, humanity’s future – exploring them through such an outlandish and interesting lens. However, there are times where your attention might wander and the film perhaps isn’t quite as tight as it could be. You might guess the ending (and it is sure to divide audiences), but that doesn’t stop you from going along for the ride.
With a lesser-known cast and filmmaker, this is the kind of film you might stumble across when flicking through the channels before bed and suddenly find yourself invested in its weirdness. Intriguing and unsettling, it proves the Stone-Lanthimos collaboration has even more to give and offers Plemons a brilliant showcase to boot.
