Bugonia

 

First things first, Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos's latest, Bugonia, is a bloody mess. But it is also brilliant, both surprising and typically outlandishness, and anchored by wonderful performances from Emma Stone (Poor Things) and Jesse Plemons (Kinds of Kindness), whose recent 50-pound weight loss is even more apparent here.

Stone plays Michelle Fuller a high-powered dominatrix CEO of a pharmaceutical company in rural Georgia. She's a coutoured bundle of mix-messaging and faux social consciousness in Louboutin stilletos. An amazing creation.

Michelle is kidnapped by Plemons' greasy tinfoiler Teddy and Teddy's neurodivergent cousin Don (Aidan Delbis, who is on the autism spectrum) as part of Teddy's plan to force Fuller, who he believes is a member of an alien race responsible for the destruction of the Earth's eco system, to leave the planet during the luna eclipse, four days hence. 

During the kidnapping, a manic scene in the first 15 minutes of the picture, Lanthimos demonstrates with great economy that Teddy and Don are not the brightest bulbs, at least when it comes to human abduction. But their passion and dedication, mainly Teddy's, seems honest.The cousins manage to sedate and shave Michelle and keep her bound in the basement of their disaster of a home. Most of the film takes place in that space. 

The "negotiations," riveting exchanges that are terrifically shot, don't proceed as Teddy expects, and Don, who is a sweetheart, is never fully persuaded that Michelle is the alien invader his cousin says she is. The situation grows more and more tenuous as the days progress, and it is never clear how the stalemate will be resolved. Lanthimos leaves room for the possibility that Teddy is not COMPLETELY crazy -- he seems too articulate for that -- but the real game that's afoot is not made clear until the final, breathless and explosive reel. 

Bugonia is a remake of 2003 South Korean film Save the Green Planet!, which I've not seen, and compares favorably with black comedies that have been produced by those studios that I have seen, among them The Host, Parasite, Mickey 17. It is most definitely not for every taste, a mordant sense of humor would be most useful.