BUGONIA

THREE STARS The CEO of a major firm is kidnapped by conspiracy-theorists convinced she's an evil alien.

COMEDY-DRAMA US English #BUGONIA Starring Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons

Yorgos Lanthimos is not content to deliver easy entertainment. His work includes THE FAVOURITE and POOR THINGS and is always off-beat, funny, vicious, surreal or absurd (usually all at once). As it is with BUGONIA in which two conspiracy-driven loners abduct a high-powered CEO because they believe she is an alien bent on destroying Earth. Nuts right? Well, yes. And no.

The director’s (over used?) favourite Emma Stone is on form as Michelle Fuller, a glossy-surface business woman whose world collapses when she’s kidnapped. Stripped of her hair (a communication device) and confident veneer, Fuller becomes both victim and enigma; could she be what they say she is? Of course not, which is where the fun and the absurdity comes in. Or could she? Maybe, which is where the surreal and satire comes in.

Stone serves a defiantly crisp character that owns much of the film’s power. Yet it’s her so-crazy-he-seems-normal beekeeping, conspiracist-kidnapper Jesse Plemons who brings the film together. He's scene-stealing, and the weird mind-games they play are as fun as they are grotesque.

Visually and tonally, BUGONIA is a familiar blend of odd angles, disquieting close-ups and a fevered logic that befits Lanthimos’s signature style. The theme of bees, of infiltration, of queens and corporate kings is given a bizarre yet vivid treatment. He wants you to feel uncomfortable, to squirm, and ripens each scene with extraordinary tension 

Though if you’re not on board with the intentionally skewed vision presented by Lanthimos, BUGONIA could feel alienating rather than thrilling. More so by the time we (finally) reach the payoff, one that sails dangerously close to kitsch and makes you wonder if this is all he had, was it worth the effort? 

Because for all its strengths, BUGONIA does not really land. With two hours to fill the narrative often stutters and some scenes feel like set-pieces without payoff. There are moments where the absurdism becomes indulgent, the (unwarranted) violence becomes schlock, and the viewer risks losing the thread of what exactly the film wants to say. While it picks at conspiracy’s stranglehold over public discourse, any serious discussion is hollowed out by unearned scenes and a throwaway ending.

Yet the film does achieve a sense of ambition. It provokes questions about power, belief, the nature of monsters (human or alien) and the way we treat the other. In that sense it is both entertaining and stimulating, if in a casual way that wants for more depth. BUGONIA is not perfect, but it is bold and strange and often challenging. It won't please everyone, but viewers willing to embrace its oddities are given a memorable experience.

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