Del reviews ‘Bugonia’

Image courtesy of Focus Features.

“Bugonia” Starring Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons and Aiden Delbes. Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos. 1 hour, 58 minutes. Rated R. Theatrical release.

Plot synopsis: Two young men kidnap the CEO of a pharmaceutical company after becoming convinced she’s an alien invader masquerading as a human being.

Spoilers: No.

Del’s take

“Bugonia,” Yorgos Lanthimos’ most accessible film, is dramatic, violent, weird, gory and hilarious – in other words, it’s the strangest movie you’ll see this year.

I can’t pin down the message. Is it a condemnation of Big Pharma or a larger indictment of corporate greed and inhumanity? Does it mock MAGA-like conspiracy theorists or is it a cautionary tale about the military-industrial complex? It appears to wear all of those hats and none of them. In the end, I wasn’t sure what to make of it.

The story is about Teddy (played by Jesse Plemons), who believes high-power Auxolith CEO Michelle (Emma Stone) is an Andromedan who has come here to eliminate mankind by way of pollution and climate change. Teddy hatches an insane plan: He and his autistic cousin Don (Aidan Delbis) will kidnap Michelle, shave off her hair so she can’t communicate with her fellow Andromedans on the mothership, and force her to set up a powwow with the Andromedan emporer. Teddy hopes to convince the emporer to withdraw the Andromedans who are fucking up the Earth, allowing the planet’s ecosystem and psychic balance to be restored … or something like that.

But all plans go awry when contact is made with the enemy. Don is the conscience of the pair and begins to question Teddy’s reasoning and motivation, especially when it becomes known Teddy’s mother Sandy (Alica Silverstone) participated in an Auxolith medical trial way back when and now lies in a coma at a corporate medical facility. And Teddy’s childhood babysitter, sheriff’s deputy Casey (Stavros Halkias), who molested Teddy when he was a young boy, comes sniffing around as Michelle lies chained to a cot in Teddy’s basement.

Through it all Teddy remains maniacally determined to negotiate a withdrawal by the Andromedans so that everything on Earth can become good again. Michelle is equally determined to extract herself from the clutches of these two lunatics and resume her empty life as a powerbroker in the world of Big Pharma. It’s all very bleak but leavened with sardonic humor, and you almost believe it’s going to work out. Almost.

The first act is plodding but as things careen downhill through the second and third acts, events move along rapidly, in synch with the unraveling of Teddy’s plan and his sanity.

All three primary actors do superb work here. Oscar nominations wouldn’t surprise me. And Lanthimos has put together a fairly intricate movie where all the i’s are dotted and the t’s crossed, weird as it is.

But again, the movie’s subtext seems inconsistent. At times it’s supportive of the Michelle character and her worldview, at other times bitterly critical. Then there’s Teddy, alternately portrayed as a decent guy made cynical by Big Pharma or a complete whacko. Don’s character remains true to his nature throughout, a noble savant swept away by forces that don’t make sense to them or us.

I think people who like this sort of thing will love “Bugonia,” and others who don’t will hate it. In some ways it reminds me of another movie with “bug” in its title, 2006’s “Bug” with Ashley Judd and Michael Shannon. That movie also featured a kind of hostage-taking, and characters who were grappling with altered perceptions of reality. Or were they?

“Bugonia” is cleverly written and some of Michelle’s soliloquies are pure gold of modern corporatespeak. After about the halfway mark the movie becomes impossible NOT to watch. Still, as an entertainment value, I thought it was lacking – too violent, too inconsistent in its messaging, and just too strange. For that reason I’m giving it a B-. It has amassed a 70 percent Rotten Tomatoes score and earned $5.8 million over the weekend, putting it in fifth place at the box office. By the way, I was the only person in the theater, so get thee to a movie theater for the next big showing, which I expect will be “Predator: Badlands.”

Mladen was out fossil hunting and couldn’t join me for “Bugonia.” Why does he need fossils when he’s got ME for a friend?

Mladen Rudman is a former journalist and technical writer. Del Stone Jr. is a former journalist and writer.