Bugonia Bugonia

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.

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.

The film turned out no worse than the Korean version, which is already impressive on its own.

Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons once again deliver outstanding performances.

What we get is a sharp satire that makes you wonder: maybe conspiracy believers are simply broken by the real world? Maybe that's why they retreat into fantasies, searching for secrets that don't actually exist, just to justify their own problems?

The ending raises a question: can we ever be as organized as bees? Or are we destined to remain fragmented and harm one another? Does a perfect version of humanity even exist?

Lanthimos once again does not disappoint.

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.