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Bugonia

Another curious film from the master of the askew, Yorgos Lanthimos. This comes on the heels of his previous film, Kinds of Kindness and I feel that it takes its theme from one of the three stories in that triptych, even though it's based on a 2003 Korean film called Save the Green Planet! Bugonia opens with shots of bees pollinating flowers, accompanied by a voice over from Jesse Plemons, praising the insect. The importance of the bees runs throughout the film.

We soon understand that Plemons' character Teddy, isn't quite all there, illustrated by his contention that the Andromedans live among us and are preparing earth for destabilisation or destruction. Teddy lives with his autistic cousin Don, played by neurodivergent newcomer, Aidan Delbis. In his awkward innocence, and maybe purity, he's the moral centre of the film.

Teddy, as mastermind of the ambitious plot, identifies high ranking executive Michelle (Emma Stone) as an alien and so the cousins kidnap her and demand she introduce them to her Emperor to negotiate terms for the Andromedan withdrawal. All this plays out under the clear theme of climate destruction, but also of disenfranchisement, alienation, and class divisions. It's no small wonder that when Don voices concern that people will notice what they're doing, Teddy tells him 'nobody on earth gives a fuck about us', or words to that effect. Maligned and malignant, awful combo.

There's a nice balancing act of motivation and justification - we learn that Teddy's mother, and the whole local community may have been poisoned by Michelle's company. A local cop is revealed to have traumatised Teddy years earlier. There's also the possibility that Michelle might actually be an alien, lending credence to Teddy's madness.

The images in the film are typically Lanthimosian, if I can say that, and the soundtrack also does a fine job of discombobulating the audience. Performance-wise, Plemons, Stone and Delbis are an excellent trio, lending a degree of credibility to the film. Everyone plays it straight, though it could easily have gone to ham town. There's one super tense scene at a dinner table that did a lot of work for the whole film - as Michelle and Teddy spar over bees, they're really talking about themselves and, by extension, all of us.

Bugonia is still showing in Aus cinemas - I saw this at the Luna in Leederville.

See also:

Dogtooth (2009) and The Favourite (2018) are fine examples of Lanthimos at his best, though the former is a bit of an acquired taste:)

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