Yorgos Lanthimos is known for pushing the boundaries of audience expectations, and Bugonia might just be the most absurdist entry in his filmography to date. However, despite all the unsettling imagery and startling ideologies, the movie is also one of the director’s most human and grounded works. It features expectedly solid performances from Jesse Plemons and Emma Stone, whose comfortable and fluid working relationship with Lanthimos shines through the piece. This means, what could be a sententious story about the environment and the dangers of the internet becomes a very intimate and tragic tale of the careful balance of rationality and belief. Those who don’t usually resonate with Lanthimos’ style of cinema may find Bugonia more challenging, and some of the latter visual effects are clearly underdeveloped. However, it is an undeniable tense yet unique thriller that is both politically charged and personally stirring. It shows the director is in full control of his craft and should only get audiences more excited for what is next.
‘Bugonia’ Is Built On Impressive Lead Performances
Bugonia follows two conspiracy-obsessed cousins, Teddy (Jesse Plemons) and Don (Aidan Delbis), who kidnap Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone), the CEO of a pharmaceutical company, believing her to be an alien. In a short space of time, the movie immediately sets up Teddy and Don’s dynamic, with the former holding the control and influence in the pair. It is a complicated ideal to buy into, but there is a tenderness to the pair that earns them a grey sense of morality and stops them from fitting neatly into a villainous archetype. Although the audience struggles to buy into the absurdity of their beliefs, Bugonia gives Teddy and Don a real sense of humanity that offers a slight essence of relatability. Similarly, Stone’s first appearance offers an archetypal CEO with an excessive self-care and wellness routine that allows her to feel non-descript and transferable. It means Bugonia is able to signpost the important traits that fall into the men, and Stone’s character is a representation of something much bigger than the individual.
Emma Stone is unsurprisingly compelling, showing the vicious sense of control and self-worth held by someone in a high-powered position. However, it is Jesse Plemons who gives the more impressive performance as an insecure and isolated individual who has come to rely on conspiracy to distract himself from his own trauma. He has to offer nuances to Teddy, who is clearly a troubled man but also offers a great deal of intelligence in his ability to construct digital models of hypothetical spaceships. It makes the throughline thesis of the movie murkier to distinguish because there is an overwhelming element of disgust and separation towards Plemons’ performance, but that is countered by a real stark sense of humanity.
Image Via Focus Features
‘Bugonia’ Feeds On Its Own Grey and Ambigious Morality
The core feeling with Bugonia, as a viewer, is that you are never quite set on the message it is trying to get across. For some, this lack of a true paragon could make the movie difficult to engage with, but this moral ambivalence feels incredibly authentic. The movie manages to touch on themes of classism, environmentalism and grief through its biting dialogue and gives the audience its own agency to unpack their own stance. The setting is claustrophobic, with much of the runtime taking place in the cousins’ basement, and this means much of the exposition is done through conversation. Watching the back and forth between Plemons and Stone as their characters engage in a discourse about the internet and the rise of conspiracy is worth the ticket fee alone. They are two actors at the top of their game, and they drive the narrative effortlessly. However, this more stripped-back style feels most impressive for Lanthimos, considering this is not long after the sets in Poor Things were such an important narrative device. It offers something new from the director, showing he doesn’t always need pompous sensationalism to convey his satirical tone and comedic pulse.
Bugonia is a constant battle between rationality and belief, and it takes the audience on this politically charged journey, seeping deep into the psyche of a man fuelled by grief. It is purposefully nihilistic and hopeless, and it won’t be fulfilling for all viewers. However, when you sink your teeth into the absurdist nature of the situation at the heart of the movie, there is something incredibly grounded to attempt to unpick in your head. It offers different ideologies, and by the movie’s climax, it never settles on what is right and wrong. It is Yorgos Lanthimos at his most unhinged and is a fitting addition to his already impressive filmography.
Bugonia is in theatres from Friday 31st October