Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Cast: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Aidan Delbis, Stavros Halkias, Alicia Silverstone
Rating: (R16)
★★★
REVIEWED BY THOMAS GREEN
Bugonia, the latest black comedy from "Greek freak" director Yorgos Lanthimos, sees his uniquely absurdist gaze focusing on screen-dependent conspiracy theorists helplessly consumed by their bizarro beliefs. Bottom-rung worker and beekeeping hobbyist Teddy Gatz (Jesse Plemons) serves as both the main character and a dogmatic believer, enlightened by the assertions of a hidden master plan by the elite of cosmic proportions. This, in turn, leads him to concoct his own conniving solution.
But sadly, the bee-wildering mayhem that ensues doesn’t entirely feel like it’s worth all the buzz.
Living in his old dilapidated family home with his naive neurodivergent cousin Donny (Aidan Delbis), Teddy is adamant that local pharmaceutical chief executive Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone) is actually an alien on a mission to destroy Earth.
The pair kidnap Fuller, lobbying said inane allegations of extraterrestrial origin against her. Now, Fuller must attempt the impossible task of detoxifying Teddy from his detached perception of reality.
The narrative reads like a playful satire of our exhaustingly-familiar digital delirium, but Bugonia makes a fatal error in reacting to the looming collapse of an objective reality with a resigned shrug. Rather than critiquing the influences that inform Teddy’s ideology, the focus is placed on contextualising the trauma that inspired his spiral down the rabbit hole.
The gradual reveal of his backstory is an adequate justification for his dismay, but any ties to contemporary conspiracies, and their inseparable associations with the political zeitgeist of the 2020s are swiftly disavowed, which feels cowardly.
Fuller tries making bland appeals to rationality by criticising the "echo chambers" that Teddy surrounds himself with, but this certainly doesn’t feel incisive.
This frustration is compounded by the wildly chaotic turn within the final 30 minutes, which some may praise for the gonzo liberties it takes. But to me, this is where Bugonia veers completely off-course, twisting the themes of misplaced anger motivated by corporate dominance, into a vindicating smug morality test, concluding that humanity was a failure of an experiment. How trite.
Fortunately, the stellar cast of oddballs completely thrives in the madness. Emma Stone reasserts herself as one of the most exciting actresses of her generation, croaking out banal PR-tested, PR-approved rhetoric, while playing up the raspiness of her voice, enough of an impersonal touch to lend Teddy’s accusations some credence.
But newcomer Delbis as the kind-hearted Donny deserves particular praise, representing how malleable the mind can be when it buys into the belief that it’s irreparably broken. The authenticity he brings as a neurodivergent actor himself is remarkable, helping form a uniquely tragic angle that could’ve been the film’s secret weapon. But as is, Delbis remains painfully under-utilised, the film squandering its remaining potential by having him make an unceremonious exit, marking the fatalistic point of no return.
