Bugonia review

BUGONIA: 

YORGOS LANTHIMOS’ WILD ALIEN FLICK! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: **** out of 4

FOCUS FEATURES

Emma Stone in Bugonia

 

            Emma Stone (Zombieland 1 and 2, La La Land, Poor Things) gets abducted by people assuming she’s secretly an alien in Bugonia, the new film from director Yorgos Lanthimos (The Favourite, Poor Things, Kinds of Kindness). I was interested in seeing this film, I think Yorgos Lanthimos is a very fascinating director with The Favourite and Poor Things being among some of the best films from 2018 and 2023. 

So, him doing a movie where people think Emma Stone is an alien with his unique, often bizarre directing style peaked my interest and just like the already mentioned, Favourite and Poor Things, Bugonia is among the best movies I saw so far this year. I had an absolute blast with this film and was laughing many times throughout the movie was also being fascinated by where it was going, I had no clue how things would play out by the end. 

The film follows powerful CEO Michelle Fuller (Stone) being abducted by conspiracy theorist Teddy Gatz (Jesse Plemons-Black Mass, The Irishman, Kinds of Kindness) and his cousin Don (Aidan Delbis) who are convinced she is actually an alien bent on destroying planet Earth. Teddy and Don hold Michelle captive in their basement, shave her head so she can’t contact her mother ship (supposedly), and try to negotiate with her leader(s) to have the aliens leave…oh, and something to do with honeybees because I like to be reminded of M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happeningwhen watching a Yorgos Lanthimos film. 

The film also stars Stavros Halkias (Cum Town, Tires, Let’s Start a Cult) as police officer Casey and Alicia Silverstone (Clueless, Batman & Robin, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed) as Teddy’s mother Sandy Gatz. 

Overall, Bugonia is out of this world Yorgos Lanthimos chaos and an absolute must watch with an audience. Part of the fun of this movie did come from hearing the audience reactions to what was happening onscreen whether it’s laughter during a funny moment or when something crazy happens or complete shock when there’s a revelation about the plot/characters or a gory scene. 

If you can see it in theaters with a crowd, do so because you and everyone else will have a great time together. Given the premise and Lanthimos’ directing style, I had no idea where this film was going and what the inevitable outcome would be, it had me glued to the screen and on the edge of my seat. 

The performances particularly from Stone and Plemons are excellent which should be expected given their talents, but they work exceptionally well here with Stone as a CEO and very articulate with her speech while Plemons hams it up as a conspiracy theorist. Both of them are incredibly entertaining together as two people caught in a power struggle which I think does resonate with a lot of people in the work environment and powerful corporate CEOs, alien subplot notwithstanding.

The movie is also very well shot with a 1.50:1 aspect ratio that differs from the 4:3 aspect ratio used in other arthouse films and amazing cinematography. Some of my favorite sequences throughout the film are these long shots of people moving in a straight line whether it’s Stone walking through the halls of her building or Plemons bicycling outside to a hospital accompanied by Jerskin Fendrix’s stellar music score, makes going to the workplace or racing to the hospital seem all the more epic when Lanthimos shoots it. 

This film is hard to categorize because on one hand it is quite funny with a ton of darkly comical moments, but it’s also a thriller where the situation is being taken seriously, and all of a sudden it becomes a science fiction movie. AMC Theatres has it categorized as a comedy and much like Ridley Scott’s The Martian, I wouldn’t go that far, it’s a thriller with some dark comedy thrown in. 

I’m trying not to go into too much detail with this movie because the fun does come from the surprise and shock of everything so, I will start wrapping this up. Bugonia is a fun, funny, and sometimes really fucked up thriller with amazing performances by Stone and Plemons, an engaging plot, and masterful direction from Yorgos Lanthimos, I eagerly await his next project because he is knocking things out of the park and in this film’s case, into orbit.