Bugonia (2025) - 9/10

It’s a Lanthimos film, expect it to push some buttons. Teddy (Jesse Plemons) and Don (Aiden Delbis) are country boys. Georgia, USA to be precise. Clean living (sort of), bee keeping, hard working… planning. Teddy looks after his cousin, teaches him about the world, how we’re all worker bees, serving the queen. The queen, he believes is Michelle (Emma Stone). She’s a high powered CEO of a biomedical company, sending out the sort of nonsensical mixed messages to employees, so rampant in modern corporate culture. She’s as confused as the rest of us, she just has more money. Teddy though, has been on the internet and believes she’s an alien. Abducting her, shaving her head and covering her in cream, he (and to a much lesser extent Don) demand a sit down on her mothership, with her alien overlords to broker a deal. The fact that Michelle doesn’t instantly scoff at this conspiratorial nonsense does feel unusual, but again, it’s a Lanthimos film. Take the satire away and we’d have a much more disturbing premise. This is dark though, deeply. Teddy needs help, his view on society is a bleak mess, triggered by childhood loses and abuse. This is gripping because of how plausible that is. Michelle, although the victim, is far from innocent, she’s a corporate leech, justifying heinous decisions. Everyone is bonkers. Well aside Don, he’s neurodivergent and the most sensible and humane character by a long way. Plemons and Stone are magnificent. They often are, but honestly, here, they’re both stunning throughout. The final act though. Oh. my. god! Wonderful. Again, Lanthimos, pushing buttons and a reminder I really must get myself some new knitwear.

9/10