Two conspiracy-obsessed men kidnap the CEO of a major company when they become convinced that she’s an alien who wants to destroy Earth.

Review

Josh (Guest) – ​Yorgos Lanthimos’ latest film, Bugonia, is a darkly humorous and unsettling thriller that offers a nihilistic commentary on corporate values, environmental collapse, and social inequality. Based on a 2003 Korean film, Save the Green Planet!, the themes of Bugonia are even more relevant following the COVID pandemic that our society is still grappling with five years later.

The acting was impeccable, with Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons, again, teaming up with Lanthimos. Jesse Plemons plays a beekeeper and full-blown conspiracy theorist who is convinced that Emma Stone’s character, a high-powered CEO of a pharmaceutical company, is a part of an alien civilization that controls life on Earth. Plemons, alongside his cousin (played by Aidan Delbis), kidnaps Stone’s character in a desperate and oftentimes comedic attempt to “save the world.”

​What ensues is pure psychological warfare; with the audience kept in a paranoiac state of suspense throughout the film, and being forced to question: where does the truth lie? Is it in the erratic, otherworldly yet fundamentally humanist perspective of the conspiracy theorist, or the glossy, knife-sharp corporate speak of the powerful executive? This tension is sustained throughout by acidic and intelligent dialogue as Stone’s character navigates her captivity with the cold logic of a CEO in crisis management mode, often yielding hilarious moments that point to the inadequacy of words in the face of real human trauma.

​Ultimately, Bugonia is a highly polished film that fits perfectly into Lanthimos’s growing list of social satires. A sense of suffocation and bewilderment is built up with the use of close-up camera angles, and a clamorous and jarring score, by Jerskin Fendrix. However, for all of the clever crafting and the moral complexity of its themes, the conclusion seemed a bit too simple and constrained. So, while not reaching as high a mark as Lanthimos’ preceding works (Poor Things or The Favourite), Bugonia remains a well-made film that captures the anxiety and absurdity of 21st-century life. 8.5/10

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