Bugonia describes the ancient Greek belief that bees could spontaneously arise from the decaying flesh of a sacrificed bull. It’s the belief in the renewal of life from death.
In Director Yorgos Lanthimos’s Bugonia, Teddy and his cousin Don, played by Jesse Plemons and Aidan Delbis, kidnap Pharma Auxolith CEO Michelle Fuller, played by Emma Stone, believing that she’s an alien from Andromeda galaxy. Conspiracy theorist Teddy thinks that Michelle’s Mothership from Andromeda arrives on Earth’s Solar Eclipse. He wants Michelle to confess to this Alien conspiracy and bring him and Don abroad the Mothership to convince the Andromedans to save Earth. That’s Teddy’s bugonia. Are these mad delusions of Teddy, who’s suffered sexual abuse and living with his dying drug addict mother Sandy, played by unrecognizable Alicia Silverstone? Or not.
Is Michelle an Alien who wants to rule Earh? In Bugonia, Director Yorgos Lanthimos and Will Tracy’s screenplay based on Jang Joon-hwan’s original screenplay keep us guessing until the very end. Bugonia is deeply disturbed, over the top violent with emotionally fractured characters. Yeah, Bugonia is messed up. Still, Yorgos Lanthimos creates humanity in profound inhumanity in Bugonia.
Bugonia is absurdist dark comedy that’s the cautionary allegory for humankind’s self-destructive nature inbred in our DNA. Although difficult to watch in spots, Bugonia is one of my favorite movies of the year so far. It’s one the best movies of the year.
Beautiful chameleon-like Emma Stone plays Auxolith CEO and Time Magazine’s Person of the Year Michelle Fuller. Michelle takes her vitamins, practices yoga, meditates, and spars with her mixed martial arts instructor daily. She demonstrates care for her employees. She says, “You can go home 5:30 pm… If you have nothing pressing to do.” On the surface, Michelle seems flawless. Almost too perfect. Well, she does swear.
Teddy lives with his spectrum disorder cousin Don in a secluded house. Aidan Delbis is a gifted autistic actor. As Don, Aidan poignantly captures the fragility of humanity in Bugonia. His authentic performance provides Bugonia its heart.
His keeper Teddy, played with measured ruthless obsession by Jesse Plemons, tragically manipulates Don’s innocence. Teddy tells Don that he will chemically castrate him, like Teddy himself, to be immune to Michelle’s charms. Don sadly looks at Teddy and says, “But I wanted to be with someone.” Absolutely heartbreaking.
Acknowledging Jesse Plemons’s powerful portrayal, I so hated Teddy. In Bugonia, Teddy is not a good man. He’s evil. His Teddy is possessed by this abhorrent mean pathology. Captured Michelle tells Teddy, “You’re mentally ill.” Then he brutally slaps her across the face. Jesse Plemons is brilliantly unsympathetic as Teddy.
Functional idiots, Teddy and Don kidnap Michelle at her mansion. She kicks their asses with her kickboxing skills until Teddy injects her with a drug. They shave Michelle’s head to prevent her from contacting her Mothership. Part of Teddy vast Andromedan research on the Internet. They chain up Michelle in the basement of their house until she confesses that she’s an Alien, who does not come in peace.
Enduring physical torture and brutal imprisonment, Emma Stone is sublime in Michelle’s unnerving calm. Maybe, she really isn’t human? Michelle is light years smarter than her stupid kidnappers. She has to create a gap, make space to escape. She’s also total badass. Stabbing Teddy with a fork, Michelle screams, “You can’t beat me, because you are a loser, and I’m a winner, and that’s fucking life.” Maybe, she is human? Just asking.
Emma Stone personifies in her mesmerizing performance as Michelle, whether she’s an Alien or not, that unlike Teddy, she’s inherently good. She empathetically tells Don, “I can help you.” He knows Teddy is evil. She sees that.
In the terrifyingly tragic narrative arc, blood sprayed Michelle stares in the aftermath, “Oh fuck!” Yorgos Lanthinmos comically, yet eloquently tethers obscene carnage and poignant sadness. Maybe, self-destruction is our human design. That’s who we are.
Along its variant path, Yorgos Lanthimos’s narrative speeds off the rails in Bugonia’s resolution. Seemingly, Yorgos depicts the possible outcome for humanity. Although nothing is certain. That’s really up for us to choose our path. Bugonia is darkly provocative and absurdly funny. That also makes it something very special.
