Bugonia

Yorgos Lanthimos is quickly becoming a director I love. I confess I didn't care for The Lobster. However, as my friend Edward likes to say, maybe I watched it wrong. The Killing of a Sacred Deer I was riveted by. Poor Things made my Top Ten List of 2023, and Kinds of Kindness made my 2024 list. Bugonia marks Emma Stone's third straight appearance in Lanthimos films. There must be a kind of weird they both enjoy. Yorgos Lanthimos makes weird films; strange, arty, and very beautiful. I'm grateful for them. Jesse Plemons is back again too from Kinds of Kindness, a three-story film, the middle one being about a man who believes his wife to be an alien. Bugonia is almost this same story, with the exact same actors. Bugonia is actually based on the 2003 Korean film by Jang Joon-hwan, Save the Green Planet. I saw it at TIFF with my friend Jeff but have little recollection of it until he brought it up. Thank you Jeff! So what's it all about? Teddy (Plemons) believes Michelle (Stone) is an alien and he would like to meet the high-ranking alien overlord to negotiate Earth's release from captivity. That's all I'm giving you. It's strange, compelling, and funny. The ending of the film actually made me love it more - often films struggle to land the ending, this one is the opposite. Catch it in theatres now or go get it from Movies 'N Stuff when available.