150 Word Review: 'Bugonia' (2025)
Take me to your leader
Yorgos Lanthimos reunites once again with his muse, the protean and versatile Emma Stone. This time they’re joined by Jesse Plemons, one of the greatest actors of his generation, whose performances are sleights of hand: he’s a good ol’ boy one moment, the next he’s an ancient well full of darkness and sorrow.
In Bugonia, Stone is the CEO of a drug company kidnapped by a pair of yokels, but not for the usual Fargo-y reasons. In fact, the reasons are demented: Plemons’ character is a seemingly rational conspiracy theorist who has convinced his cousin, who is naive but also, maybe, intellectually disabled, that aliens have infiltrated humanity and plan to destroy the planet. Stone’s CEO is one of them, or so he’s convinced. And he tortures her.
He’s crazy, of course. Or is he? Is she? What about me? Or you? Lanthimos’ unsettling horror-comedy wrestles with paranoia and madness.
I feel certain that this film isn't "me-rated" (as in, I'd have nightmares), but good golly is it a fascinating concept.