Yorgos Lanthimos is known for his wildly surreal films, the last four of which have starred Emma Stone.
The two-time Oscar winner picked up her latest gong for the Greek filmmaker’s Poor Things and now the pair have teamed up yet again for this year’s awards contender, Bugonia.
The absurdist director’s latest also happens to be his most expensive film ($55 million) and accessible to date.
An English-language remake of Jang Joon-hwan’s Save the Green Planet! (2003) stars Stone as a powerful CEO who is kidnapped by Jesse Plemons’ conspiracy theorist beekeeper Teddy and his neurodivergent cousin Don.
The reason? The two country bumpkins are convinced Stone’s Michelle is an alien, so they shave her head to prevent her from using her hair to contact the alleged Andromedan mothership.
Chaining her up in his basement in something of a reserve alien abduction, Teddy wants to negotiate a meeting with the UFO Emperor before the next lunar eclipse in four days. Plemons has a strong track record of playing charming psychopaths all the way back to Todd in Breaking Bad, putting on a strong performance as usual here. Meanwhile, Stone has you enthralled, continually keeping you second-guessing whether she’s just playing along to escape or is, in fact, an alien with royal blood.
After a slow start, Bugonia really gets going once the kidnapping has taken place. That’s before several literally jaw-dropping moments that simultaneously shock and amuse manifest in the film’s second half. This jet-black comedy is layered with commentary on modern conspiracy theories that plague the internet, satirising the logic (or lack thereof) of their conclusions – all the more aided by Jerskin Fendrix’s manic score. Easily one of the best films of the awards season contenders so far, but not for the squeamish.
Bugonia is out in cinemas from Friday.
