Based on the 2003 South Korean film “Save the Green Planet!,” “Bugonia” finds Teddy (Jesse Plemons, with Stone a star of Lanthimos’s “Kinds of Kindness”) and his cousin Don (Aidan Delbis) certain that a polished and cutthroat biomed CEO (Stone) is, in fact, an alien sent to Earth to bring about our destruction. They abduct her and whisk her away to their anonymous rural American home, where they try to coerce her into taking them to her leader and her mothership. Teddy and Don fit in fine with our current, conspiracy-mad culture where internet echo chambers have proven they can convince anyone of anything. (In a sign of self-awareness, Teddy even uses the phrase “echo chamber” to argue that he isn’t actually stuck in one.)
Coming off his most successful movie, “Poor Things” (for which Stone won her second Oscar), and the fringe, almost throw-away “Kinds of Kindness” (which, I must admit, I liked very much), Lanthimos has crafted a very linear film that’s still full of jagged edges. The tone is key, as it always is with this filmmaker. “Bugonia” is a work of deadpan absurdity, with hints of horror and spasms of violence competing with the kind of laughter that gets stuck in the throat.
Emma Stone as a CEO in “Bugonia.”Atsushi Nishijima/Focus Features
Working from a script by Will Tracy, Lanthimos creates a realistic ridiculousness, and trusts his leads to walk the tightrope with him. Delbis, an actor on the autism spectrum making his first film appearance, finds pathos in Don’s fealty to his cousin; their relationship gives the movie some necessary ballast. But Plemons and Stone do the heavy lifting. He runs hot, carrying a personal vendetta against this woman and her corporation, which he blames not just for poisoning the planet but also for making his mother (a blink-and-you’ll-miss-her Alicia Silverstone) deathly ill. Stone plays it cool, a master of corporate-speak who quickly realizes her main captor is dangerously crazy.
Or … is he? Lanthimos and his cinematographer Robbie Ryan, a two-time Oscar nominee for Lanthimos’s “Poor Things” and “The Favourite,” turn the always-game Stone into quite the sight. With her head shaved — Teddy insists her fellow Andromedans can track her through her hair — her face covered in white cream, the light bouncing off her face just right, she looks a little like, well, an alien. She insists she isn’t, of course. Teddy insists she is. Don is on the fence, though he loves his cousin. In Teddy’s defense, just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.
Aidan Delbis as Don and Jesse Plemons as Teddy.Atsushi Nishijima/Focus Features
It’s fair to call Lanthimos a clinical filmmaker; he has a way of capturing his characters the way a butterfly collector might wield a net. They squirm, and we squirm right along with them. There was another filmmaker who did this very well, and was also taken to task on occasion for his jaundiced take on the species. His name was Stanley Kubrick. I’m not suggesting that Lanthimos is in Kubrick’s weight class; few, if any, are. But he has a similar way with stark images, and has been known to work from a similar playbook, one that isn’t always generous to his characters, or to humankind. He’s not for everyone. Few worthwhile artists are.
He is, however, exceptional at getting everyone involved with his films on the same page, and working toward unusual results. There’s a unity of vision in a Lanthimos film, and in his body of work. He also understands that horror and humor work in the same register, and come from a similar place. Many filmmakers nibble away at the subject of human obtuseness and frailty; Lanthimos likes to take a big chomp. It’s easy to look away at the mirror he holds up to the audience. I prefer to hold the gaze.
★★★
BUGONIA
Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos. Written by Will Tracy. Starring Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Aidan Delbis, Stavros Halkias, Alicia Silverstone, J. Cameron Galindez Barrera, Mark T. Lewis, and Vanessa Eng. At Coolidge Corner Theatre, Somerville Theatre, AMC Boston Common, AMC Causeway 13, AMC Assembly Row, and AMC South Bay Center 12. 120 minutes. R (language, violence, possible misanthropy).
Chris Vognar can be reached at chris.vognar@globe.com. Follow him on Instagram at @chrisvognar and on Bluesky at chrisvognar.bsky.social.
