Film review: Bugonia

I have an odd relationship with the idiosyncratic Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos, in the sense that while I connected with his dead-pan sense of humour, and support that his strange offbeat style dips its toes in the mainstream, his smugness can put me off, and I felt that when he dared to have a political message (say in The Lobster or Poor Things), it came across at best as toothless liberal, and worst as a centrist. I like Lanthimos genuinely reaching for the darkest, most eccentric, and uncanny elements. Killing of a Sacred Deer, Kinds of Kindness, The Favourite, Dogtooth? All masterpieces.

In a way, Bugonia encompasses perfectly everything I like and don’t like about Lanthimos. It’s an odd, dark comedy, unsentimental and with a grounded political message that’s, surprisingly, not annoyingly moderate, if still too surface level.

The story, based on the cult Korean comedy Save the Green Planet, directed by Jang Joon-hwan, follows two conspiracy theory enthusiasts who kidnap the CEO of a pharmaceutical company, believing she’s an alien from outer space in disguise. Teddy (Jesse Plemons) lives with his cousin Don (Aidan Delbis) in a remote house in small-town America, which is home to the aforementioned pharma behemoth owned by Michelle (Emma Stone). Teddy is also a beekeeper and blames the dwindling bee population on the environmental catastrophe caused by a pharma company, as they are also, correctly, blamed for injuring Teddy’s mother, Sandy (Alicia Silverstone), through a trial of experimental drugs. From his kooky, deranged evidence, Teddy asserts Michelle is an alien from the Andromeda galaxy and plans to kidnap her and convince her to leave planet Earth and us humans alone.

The spectre of late-stage capitalism casts its shadow over the film. Michelle, played with chilling coldness by Stone, is the kind of benevolent CEO who, on the exact phrase they say they want employees to leave early to be with their family, adds a vague “unless you have to stay for work” to softly convince her employees to give their lives for her fortune. It contrasts with Teddy and Don’s house, which is derelict and isolated from everyone. His research taps the kernel of the issue that he is a victim of a political and economic system that sees him and his family as disposable. His conclusion isn’t to take up arms and effect change, but rather that the local millionaire has to be from a different planet. It’s easier to imagine aliens controlling us than the end of capitalism.

Teddy and Don chain Michelle to a bed in their basement, shave her head (so she can’t contact her spaceship just yet, of course) and proceed to try and convince her to admit who she is, and agree to introduce them to her leader. The boys are clumsy and inexperienced, and Lanthimos has the bad habit of portraying the poor and uneducated as hopeless idiots, but they are charming, and you feel how their circumstances led to this. This flaw is exploited by Michelle, who eventually finds a way to emotionally control first Don and then Teddy for her benefit. Stone holds her ground throughout the entire film as an unemotional billionaire with no regard for anything beyond her private equity interests. Even under torture, she’s calculating, precisely how we imagine billionaires need to be in order to be billionaires.

The emotional core is Plemmons, broken and fatalistic; his love for his cousin and his mother is only challenged by his deranged pursuit of this truth, which he still believes in, despite its fatal consequences. There’s a whole subplot that revolves around his traumatic relationship with the local police officer (Stavros Halkias), and it’s genuinely tragic and sad, albeit undercut by Lanthimos’ offbeat comedy style.

In a way, this is Lanthimos’ most approachable film, even if in the end he goes all blood and guts to the wall and gives in to his impulses. For the most part, it’s very by the numbers, with a curious pacing that Lanthimos’ fans will relish, while everyone else will find it compelling and weird, yet compelled to keep watching. However, I also felt that the film failed to address the broader implications of its socio-economic reality. It’s a tight and straightforward script that spans almost two hours without delving into the intricacies of conspiracy theory culture, exploring why it primarily affects people from lower socio-economic levels, and serves as a means to reason and accept the destructive political system that surrounds them. The problem has to be bigger than the economy, right? Aliens, secret cult societies, hidden basements inside pizza places, and more. It’s never the insidiousness of capitalism that can be faulted.

Verdict: 4 out of 5
For conspiracy theorists who love to be challenged and often validated. With this year’s Eddington and One Battle After Another, it seems that prestige Hollywood is facing the psychic fears of our Western failures. Eddington was overwhelmed by too many ideas it didn’t want to address, while One Battle After Another offered at least hope. Bugonia is very entertaining at pointing out the issue, starting it with intent, and then proceeding to add more to its chaos.