Running Time: 118 minutes
This film from Focus Features opens in wide release at theaters on October 31st.
For some time now, Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos has been making provocative arthouse fare featuring eccentric characters and bizarre scenarios that usually result in a raised eyebrow. Many of his titles have a dark sense of humor, including The Lobster and The Favourite. I’ve enjoyed those pictures, but not every title in his catalog. His latest is Bugonia, which is a remake of a 2003 South Korean picture. It’s also the closest the filmmaker has ever come to making a genre movie. The movie combines outlandish science-fiction and horror elements, yet looks and feels like a Lanthimos project. So, as you might expect, the results won’t be for everyone. But I was generally amused by this enterprise and would recommend it to those who admire his work.
Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone) is a heartless CEO at a pharmaceutical company. As the film begins, the executive is stiffly trying to promote a friendlier work culture, but it’s clear the claims are just an act. One day, she is kidnapped by Teddy Gatz (Jesse Plemons) and his neurodivergent cousin Don (Aidan Delbis) and taken to their remote farm. Teddy is a conspiracy theorist who is certain that Fuller is part of an alien species called Andromedans. He believes that her kind are infiltrating the planet and taking control. After telling the woman about her species and what he thinks they’re up to, he demands she set up a meeting with himself and the Andromedan leader in order to convince them to leave Earth. Fuller tries various tactics to try and calm her captors down, initially denying the claims, and later accepting them, buying time in order to escape or be rescued.
This is a dark comedy with satirical elements, and it’s important to realize that the main point of the film seems to be that humanity is horrible and not worth saving. Virtually all the characters involved either have psychological issues, are unhinged, or at the very least appear selfish and devious. There really isn’t anyone to relate to here. Fuller is a business leader who doesn’t care for anyone around her, Teddy’s crazed behavior can veer into violence, and the simple Don is clearly under the control of his relative. The next biggest character is Casey (Stavros Halkias), a local constable who checks-in a little too regularly with the family and shares a dark past. Oh, and the film makes a point of noting the role of humans in exterminating other species.
Thankfully, there is a very dark sense of humor running throughout the story to keep viewers engaged, at the expense of the self-involved leads. Kidnapper Terry is making absurd-sounding claims and behaving bizarrely, while the manipulative and icy Fuller alternates through several states. And there are awkward conversations with Casey as well that get unsettling as his past is revealed. This movie could have been a disaster, given the horribleness of the characters and the themes presented, if the performers weren’t charismatic. But everyone involved balances the cruelty and conflict with humor exceptionally well.
And, when violence erupts, it’s playfully exaggerated. A couple of moments that are genuinely disturbing, but as the picture goes in some truly surreal directions, most of these unexpected shocks result in chuckles. The photography and set design are striking as well. It may feature elements familiar to low-budget genre films and is only set in a few locations (the main farmhouse being quite shabby), but the movie looks slick and stylish.
As far as negative aspects go, I have now seen enough eccentric entries from the filmmaker to be able to surmise fairly easily where his stories are heading. Once you realize it, some script elements feel blunt and direct, lacking any cryptic or veiled implications. It’s just a matter of waiting for the picture to get to where you assume it must be going, and that reduces some of the surprise and suspense.
But while the final message is explicitly grim, it is humorously delivered by an excellent cast with a few memorably wild events taking place. For me, Bugonia doesn’t rank at the top of Lanthimos movies, but it is a genre picture that offers enough quirks, oddities and gross-out moments to earn a recommendation.