'Bugonia' Achieves Greatness, UNTIL...
If one of the main rules in screenwriting is to win them in the end, then the counter to that rule must be to not lose them in the end. Bugonia was just an inch away from being one of the year's best pictures. And then the ending happened. An ending that has the same life narrative stealing absurdity as the one from Take Shelter. Why go in that direction? Just to fool the audience? A director should take their subversions seriously, or else the audience winds up with "yo momma" jokes in The Last Jedi. Is Yorgos Lanthimos trolling his audience? If so, that's not a wise decision, given that it's clear he's a much more intelligent filmmaker than reverting to punchline conclusions.
You're probably wondering, what in the world a Bugonia even is. After googling it, because explanation is not Lanthimos' forte, it turns out it's an ancient tradition where bees spontaneously generate from a dead cow's carcass. Okay, Largos does explain this in the beginning, but he never verbally connects it to the film's title. It's up to the audience to figure it out.
The movie is about a guy who's probably unemployed, caring for bees with the philosophy that we're all part of the hive, with the queen being ready to extinct us. Who's that queen bee? A freaking space alien man! Teddy (Jesse Plemons) believes that Oxolith Medical CEO Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone) is that bee. With the help of his autistic brother, Don (Aidan Delbis), Teddy abducts Michelle in hopes of getting something out of her. After living a terrible life, Teddy needs to blame something on his unfortunate circumstances. At first, we don't know his motivation, but when it's revealed why he's so brainwashed, things begin to make a lot more sense. Teddy represents the common American. Poor, and angry due to an alrogythmic spread of misinformation, created to upset folks. Teddy buys into all the conspiracy theory garbage that any desperate person would grasp onto for a reason to fight against something instead of being a nobody.
When one is responsible for their own failures, they often gravitate towards advocacy to give their existence meaning in the face of misery. Teddy and Don are grown men who never matured due to overprotective parents who didn't allow their children to develop into productive adults. Teddy's aim isn't ransom or to eat the rich. The goal is to prevent humanity's extinction at the hands of malevolent extraterrestrial entities.
When modern society is filled with podcasts and articles that back up fictitious beliefs, pushed on social media, Teddy's regression into infantile behavior is the result. Complete madness due to fictional rhetoric. People like Teddy often struggle to find what they believe in because they've been raised to question the existence of objective reality.
As reasonable as Michelle is, there's not a single bit of common sense she can use to convince Teddy to let her go. She must suffer for what she's done, although she hasn't done anything. Or at least anything alien-like. Michelle has probably pushed the production of addictive opioid pharmaceuticals while increasing the price of people's medication and premiums. But not summoning a massive alien takeover.
Michelle's not Yorgos taking pops at the right, as evidence by her picture with Michelle Obama. Everyone in power is terrible. The greedy oppress the way they do while putting on a fake smile, pretending like they care for people when they think of them as peasants. When the peasants fight back, often their anger is misguided. Or they take things too far.
Teddy crosses an ethical line, not only in his abduction of Michelle, but also torture of her. Teddy is a lot like Jesse's character from Breaking Bad, but without the calm demeanor. Meanwhile, Michelle is an extremely educated individual who must forgo logic in order to convince Teddy and Don to free her. She's initially depicted as cold but polite, but by the third act, Michelle performs a monstrous act to ensure her survival, solidifying who she is as a person.
The characters in this film are layered, except for Don, who comes across more as a comedic foil than a real person. Even the cop character has more dimension to him than being just another lonely Paul Blart. What did he do to Teddy when they were kids that made him such an insecure shmuck?
As always, Emma Stone is amazing. She really sells rage and despair with incredible nuance. Stone truly deserved the two Oscars she won. Seeing Plemons as an unhinged incel is a delight since Plemons gets to tap into that boiling temper his characters always keep contained. Meanwhile, the nutso score ironically plays like a hero's theme for Teddy, who believes he's saving the world, when in reality, he's destroying it, albeit in a small way.
Bugonia is a brilliant depiction of society's twisted ethos. Our morality becomes meaningless when we reject it in favor of a greater good that does not exist. The classist structure of capitalism leads many to descend into a black hole. Everything this movie is commenting on is thrilling. You can't predict what's going to happen, even when you think you've outsmarted Yorgos; he pulls the rug from under the audience, with care and intention.
Those subversions sadly take a massive nosedive. Without spoiling the ending, all one can say is that you'll either love it or hate it. This particular critic despised it. Everything the movie has been building up to is thrown out the window for a last-minute misdirection, leaving audiences to ponder the implications of the ending for the rest of the year. Movies that spark conversations are the best type. However, movies that make foolish changes to force an unnecessary discussion are bad storytelling. If it weren't for those final 5-10 minutes, Yorgos Lanthimos would have made a four-star flick, let alone a best picture recommendation. Sadly, Lantimos drops the honey, leaving all of his bees scattered at the last minute in an otherwise potentially tight, brilliant film.
Bugonia is playing in a special limited engagement in Chicago on October 24th, ahead of its wide expansion on October 31st.
