Bugonia

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Another title from a real prince of strangeness, Yorgos Lanthimos, who also gave us oddities like 'The Lobster' and 'Poor Things', 'Bugonia' goes more into a sci-fi realm while remaining simple yet poignant. With his collaborations with Emma Stone, whom I've always held in high regard, and the film's ideas, I was definitely on board for the ride. Especially if it was gonna be as weird and original-feeling as 'Poor Things' ended up being. What can I say? I love the strange and unusual in filmmaking.

The strange and unusual in filmmaking offers us a chance to exercise our imaginations and find some deeper meaning behind it all. I also stick to my guns on the idea that my enjoyment of the strange and unusual is likely original, and while others may turn their noses up at these films because they're "too weird." I mentioned this in my review of 'Poor Things'; the fact remains that these are the original ideas audiences keep asking for, while "everything in Hollywood seems to repeat itself all the time." And while the messages behind 'Bugonia' aren't necessarily original, the execution is something I haven't seen before.

As the film opens, a conspiracy theorist by the name of Teddy Gatz (Jesse Plemons) and his autistic cousin, Don (Aidan Delbis), discuss the nature of bees while beekeeping, and the concept of "Colony Collapse Disorder," in which most of the worker bees will spontaneously leave the hive for unknown reasons. Teddy is convinced that humanity is experiencing this process through a race of aliens known as "Andromedans," and one of these Aliens happens to be Michelle (Stone), the CEO of the pharmaceutical company he does packing and shipping for.

Teddy further believes that the Andomedans mean to force the human race into servitude, destroy communities, and that Michelle is explicitly responsible for putting his mother, Sandy (Alicia Silverstone), in a seemingly inescapable coma after she took part in a clinical drug trial. With the help of Don, Teddy plans to kidnap her, interrogate her, and force her to heal Sandy and snap her out of her coma. While the pair get more than they bargained for in their kidnapping attempt, they are ultimately successful.

Holding Michelle in their basement, Teddy, with Don on standby, interrogates her after doing strange, conspiracy-nut-related things like shaving her head and covering her body in antihistamine cream so that she can't signal her mothership, and tells her she has four days to negotiate a meeting with the Emperor of the Andromedans, lest a lunar eclipse occur that will allow the mothership to enter Earth's atmosphere and his whole train of conspiracy thought becomes a reality.

On the whole, Yorgos Lanthimos did a great job with this film, reflecting a lot of the human condition we've been seeing over the past several years or more; the performances are well executed; it's an interesting idea; and, again, it's just plain weird, with a poignant message under its strange exterior. With all that said, this is one of those films I called part of the ending straight from the trailer, so for some, it may be predictable. Still, the film attempts to hold a mirror up to society, and I believe it ultimately succeeds.

Truth be told, I totally get why Lanthimos' projects aren't necessarily for everyone. There's definitely an artsiness to them, and one will often have to wrap one's head around what's going on. But again, this title is more straightforward, if odd, than something like 'Poor Things'. I also have to credit the film for its ending, which, while I may have partly predicted, could still serve as a decent wake-up call for humanity. For as weird as this movie is, it still managed to leave me in awe, and I'd say it's another strong hit for Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone, who seem to work together just about as well as PB&J.

4/5

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