Bugonia (2025)

It is kind of odd to say, but BUGONIA might be Yorgos Lanthamos’ most straight forward film, but since its about a conspiracy nut who kidnaps the CEO of a major pharmaceutical company in order to wrench a confession out of her that she is really the leader of an alien species bent of pulling the plug on the human race – that might sound like a stretch.  But if you know this director’s previous works like THE LOBSTER, THE FAVOURITE and POOR THINGS, then you get where I’m coming from.

The movie is, effectively, a pitch black comedy starring Jessie Plemmons as the conspiracy nut and Emma Stone as the CEO and mostly takes place in his basement as he chains her to a cot and tries to coerce a confession out of her.  For safety sake, he has shaved her head because he believes that it is the tool by which she communicates with the mothership.

Now, here is the trick.  Without giving anything away, I’ll say that if you don’t know the work of Yorgos Lanthamos, then you’re probably going to assume that Plemmons is insane and all of his crackpot theories a bunch of B.S.  If you DO know that work of Yorgos Lanthamos, then you’re set up for the idea that it could really go either way.  The great thing about his work is that you never really know what to expect.  He commands an open mind – a REALLY open mind and fashions this pitch black comedy with the outlines of a thriller.  Is Emma Stone manipulating her kidnapper just to get out of his basement, or is he right in all of his weird theories.

The answer to that turns out not to be the point.  And what was disappointing is that, except for an effectively bizarro final act, the movie didn’t leave me with much when it was over.  I got the point, all the pieces were laid out, but I didn’t come away with a lot to think about.  It’s a good movie, a very weird movie, but not especially substantial.