Bugonia
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“I know who you are...I know what you are”
Overview
A wild suspense thriller about the madness of the modern age, Yorgos Lanthimos' Bugonia features a return to nihilistic form and a searing set of performances from his faves Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons. Michelle Fuller (Stone) is the rising-star CEO of a major pharmaceutical company, using a PR-perfect mask that champions fair work practices and diversity to mask a roiling inner anger and some shady business practices. This tidy life is upended when eccentric local beekeeper Teddy (Plemons) and his cousin Donny (Aiden Delbis) invade her mansion, kidnap her and whisk her away to an isolated farmhouse with the rationale that Michelle's corporation is hastening climate collapse through the pesticides it manufactures- and that she herself is an alien being, sent to earth to destroy it. A psychological game with deadly stakes unfolds as the Teddy tries to force her to put the world to rights, while Michelle struggles to regain the power she held in her former life.
“As blissfully bonkers as the era of its release”
“Another triumph from a singular voice in cinema”
“Lanthimos is at the top of his visionary nihilistic game”
Why See This Film
Apparently this is the year we jump from period filmmaking headfirst into the turbulent social climate of 2025, now with this timely remake of Jang Joon-hwan's Save the Green Planet! from the director of Dogtooth, The Lobster and Poor Things. Lanthimos is once again working with lucky charm Emma Stone, alongside newer collaborators Jesse Plemons and Willem Dafoe, and clearly having a wonderful time crafting a high-stakes duel between diametrically opposed self-rationalising worldviews. Stone and Plemons are exquisite as two alienated souls wrestling for control, but Lanthimos never loses sight of the ball as Bugonia barrels towards its bravura climax.
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