Review: Bugonia

Bugonia is a film about two people who have two extremely different views of the world - so much so that only one of them can be right. Fortunately, one of them is a raving nutcase with a worldview he seems to have pulled from the internet's most insane depths. Unfortunately, he's also the one with a gun.

Teddy Gatz (Jesse Plemons) and his trusting cousin Don (Aidan Delbis) live on a run down farm in the shadow of a tragic incident that left Teddy's mother (Alcia Silverstone) in a vegetative state. It's understandable that he'd want revenge on the corporation responsible, but what he's planning isn't about revenge: he's trying to save the planet from aliens sent here to doom us all.

Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone) is a high flying executive at a large corporation. She's a polished operator, well versed in corporate speak: her current push is to encourage employees to leave on time, unless they still have work to do, in which case they should get their work done but also feel free to leave on time just so long as their work is getting done. You know the type.

It's not enough for Teddy and Don to kidnap her and tie her up in their basement; they also shave her head and smear her with antihistamine cream because she's an alien (an Andromedan, to be specific) and her hair is how she communicates with the mothership that'll be arriving in a few days during a lunar eclipse. The clock is ticking if Teddy wants to persuade her to take him with her so he can negotiate for the survival of the human race- or just demand they leave Earth alone.

Much of what follows is a back-and-forth between the two as he explains his conspiratorial world view and she tries to lead him to a place where he lets her go. Both of them seem roughly in agreement that the world is in trouble environmentally: he blames the aliens, she suggests humanity might be responsible all on its own but hey, at least her corporation is trying its best and they could try even better if he let her go.

And meanwhile a famous executive is missing so there's a bit of a search going on, which has Casey (Stavros Halkias), a local cop and also Teddy's former babysitter (which seems to be a story with a bit more to it than we're getting) sniffing around. Is Don fully on board with all this? And what's the deal with the bees?

This adaptation of the 2003 Korean film Save the Green Planet largely rests on the performances of its two leads - well, that and director Yorgos Lanthimos' sense of the absurd - and Stone and Plemons are in excellent form. They both find the humanity in characters that are often little more than debating points, giving the offbeat mix of environmental concern and unhinged conspiracy some much-needed grounding.

As for that debate, the back and forth is often entertaining, and there's just enough going on outside of it to keep this from feeling like a filmed play. The substance of the debate isn't really connected to the real world - especially when we get the occasional hint that maybe Teddy might somehow be onto something - but again, it mostly works dramatically as a power struggle rather than a real attempt to discuss anything authentic.

Which becomes a real problem towards the end, when this takes a big swing dramatically that it honestly hasn't earned. The result is a conclusion that's easily the most powerful and memorable part of the film - it just doesn't feel like it develops emotionally from anything that came before no matter how many clues were scattered around.

The view of humanity here isn't exactly rosy, and despite Teddy's wacky views this is not much of a comedy either. He's put someone in peril in an attempt to deal with his own pain and loss, and the film respects that; while the tone occasionally swerves towards the manic, anyone after something that will lift their mood - or just reflect a generally positive take on human existence - may want to look elsewhere.

- Anthony Morris