Bugonia

Not for everyone, but definitely for me! To start, the acting was unbelievable from the three main characters. Emma Stone was amazing, and Jesse Plemons and the actor who plays his cousin are just outstanding. The hair and makeup were very creative - from bald on Emma, to HELP - PLEASE GET THIS MAN SOME SHAMPOO! The story was the fun part - who doesn't like twists, turns, ups, downs and inside outs??? This was just a fun movie that made me want to see it a couple more times, just like Poor Things. BRAVO!

Don't get me wrong, Emma Stone is terrific here, carrying that same cool, unreadable spark that Tilda Swinton built a career on, only with a younger, brighter edge. Stone has already collected two Oscars, though, and what really catches you off guard is Jesse Plemons, who turns in a performance so sharp and so unsettling that you keep thinking you've never quite seen him push himself like this.

"Bugonia" eases in with what looks like a simple setup, just two men talking, one dominating the dialogue while the other tries to keep pace, and before you realize it the whole thing has shifted into a story that moves fast yet stays grounded enough to feel like something that could unfold a few blocks from where you live. I was hooked from the first scene and stayed that way nearly all the way through, though the ending lingers longer than it needs to, just enough to place it a step below "Poor Things." Even so, it is unmistakably a Yorgos Lanthimos production, and it carries that same strange, irresistible flavor that makes his work so easy to sink into.

Plemons sinks into this role like wet cement.

If Heath Ledger's Joker was chaos on fire, Plemons is the silence that burns before the explosion. The yin to that yang. No makeup, no theatrics, just a man quietly losing his grip one inch at a time. You can't look away.

His scenes of him 'brainwashing' his cousin exudes a natural darkness I cannot recall ever seeing on screen before.

Lanthimos strikes again! And it's another masterpiece. Black Comedy, Satire, Social critic on internet conspiracy theories, weird, absurd, witty, bloody and last but not least a nihilistic comment on mankind working on its own extinction.

And what an intelligent screenplay it is! And all in all an exciting and entertaining movie with surprising twists. How many times can you leave the theatre feeling refreshed and inspired, because you know you have just watched something you have never seen on a screen before? Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons deliver great performances, on top of their skills. It's such a pleasure to watch actors with their depth and intensity.

I loved the whole experience, it's a brilliant movie, strongly recommended.

Bugonia is a dark (VERY dark in some places) comedy / sci-fi story involving a conspiracy theorist who thinks Andromedins have invaded the Earth.

Performances are hit and miss. I'm sure some of this has to do with the writing, but Aidan Delbis didn't pull off the "challenged partner-in-crime." He was doing something with his lip that reminded me of Bill Murray in Caddyshack. Given that the movie is so dark, I think they could have written this character as someone with a legitimate mental illness, and have it portrayed that way, preferably by someone else. The comedic angle of this character fell flat. This same character type was played straight in the movie Good Time to a much greater effect.

I also think Teddy was far too stupid to have pulled any of this off. Jesse Plemons did a serviceable job playing Jesse, but the character was written to be too unintelligent.

Overall, this was a decent movie. The ending was a little opaque, but it's easy enough to follow the general idea without Googling.

8/10.