Bugonia Review
In Bugonia, Yorgos Lanthimos pares back his usual, evident madness for what is his most accessible film yet. Here, the Greek prince of the absurd, who has recently announced a break from directing, constructs a masterful exploration of the pitfalls of conspiracy under the crushing weight of capitalism. In this beautifully shot and superbly acted remake of Jang Joon-hwan’s South Korean film Save the Green Planet! (2003), Lanthimos begs the question: Will humanity ever learn?
Bugonia finds greasy-haired, pseudoscience-obsessed Teddy (Jesse Plemons) and his impressionable cousin Don (Aiden Delbis) in the Pacific Northwest countryside. From the bowels of their unkempt home, the pair devise a plan to kidnap big pharma CEO Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone), who Teddy believes is, without a doubt, an alien.
Teddy’s interest in the extraterrestrial extends beyond simple scientific fascination. He spends his days packing boxes for Michelle’s company, Auxolith, her portrait hovering over him in the breakroom, while his mother (Alicia Silverstone) lies permanently hospitalised as a result of a failed Auxolith drug trial. To Teddy, Michelle is the ringleader responsible for many life-altering misfortunes. Her abduction is an act of retribution, modelled on a very simple method picked up from his hobby as a beekeeper: go after the queen and the hive will collapse accordingly. Apparently.
One of the biggest strengths of Bugonia is how it constructs its solid, yet often subtle, dichotomy between Michelle and her kidnappers. Physically, these contrasts are obvious. Michelle springs out of bed to a 4:30 am alarm, runs on a futuristic-looking treadmill, sits under an LED light therapy face mask and drives from her monolith mansion to her company in 5-inch Louboutin heels. Her sleek, girlboss image dwarfs the lives of Teddy and Don, who live a life of near solitude. They share Teddy’s unkempt and uncared-for family home (notably devoid of any extended family), and stew over their forgotten place in the world. “Nobody gives a fuck about us”, Teddy reminds Don, as they plot and stew in what is a rather convincing portrait of dangerous, all-consuming loneliness.
This dynamic is bolstered by some smart writing from Will Tracy, who adds to Michelle’s superiority at almost every turn. Physically, she overpowers the pair in a comically unskilled abduction scene that positions the audience at various distances, watching the trio clamber through meticulously kept gardens without intervention. Once captured, Michelle bears down on her captor’s intelligence with her corporate-jargon-filled “dialogue”, quickly dismantling much of Teddy’s reason. Lanthimos maintains this gap from behind the camera too, often having the audience gaze down at Michelle and up at Teddy, as the pair go head to head in an intense series of interrogations.
Teddy’s demands are simple: he wants to be transported to the Andromedan mothership to speak with those he believes are responsible for Earth’s systemic failings. When Michelle denies any and all knowledge of his apparent discovery, Plemons and Stone engage in an intense battle of “is she or isn’t she” that, if handled by a different cast, might have lacked the viral intensity that keeps it so interesting. This battle is encouraged by Jerskin Fendrix’s incensed, string-filled score, a compilation that is easily one of the best of the year. The pair are unequivocally rapturous in these roles: Plemons imbues Teddy with an initial gentleness that makes his sporadic outbursts of violence feel ripped from within, while Lanthimos’ long-term collaborator Stone conducts Michelle’s quietly commanding persona with cold, razor-sharp precision.
Newcomer Aiden Delbis more than holds his own alongside Plemons and Stone, playing the perfect interceptor between the two sides of Bugonia’s morally and ethically compromised coin with ease. Don is positioned as a moral compass of sorts, conscious of his cousin’s wrongdoings yet manipulated into carrying them out alongside him. This contrast is welcome, yet grows all the more tragic as the film rages on. Together, the cast throw themselves at every demand a Yorgos Lanthimos production might make (let us not forget Stone’s on-screen head shave), doing so with a willingness that can’t help but shine through in their performances.
Bugonia is ultimately entirely derivative of its moment. The ‘bad’ guys are not inherently bad (or are they?) and its victim is not entirely innocent either (or is she?). It’s clever in how it keeps us off balance, constantly manipulating our allegiances, and its own. Teddy says as much, explaining that he’d tried “the alt-right, alt-light, leftist and Marxist” ideologies before landing on his Andromedan conspiracy. But it’s set-up brings you along on this ride, too. Michelle seems so perfectly normal, until you question whether she really is too manicured to be a mere human, whilst Teddy is so easily flipped by her rebuttals that you might, for a brief moment, consider that he really is privy to something that we aren’t.
Bugonia leaves you grappling for someone to believe, and equally, for someone to blame. In the end, it’s a fantastically absurd yet entirely sad depiction of how society seems destined to strangle itself in its capitalist ambition. Will we ever learn? Probably not.
★★★★★
In cinemas from October 31st / Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Aidan Delbis, Alicia Silverstone / Dir. Yorgos Lanthimos / Universal Pictures/ 15
Discover more from
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
About the Author
