Bugonia

Yorgos Lanthimos is back doing his usual weird thing with Bugonia. It's a remake of Save the Green Planet!, but feels colder and more deliberately uncomfortable.

Emma Stone is chilling as a boss-lady, and Jesse Plemons is incredible as the paranoid conspiracy-theorist unshaken in his conviction that she's an alien. The film is basically just them facing off, a true acting masterclass. It keeps you guessing till the very end.

Do not go in expecting a run-of-the-mill sci-fi action thriller. There are no laser battles or such business here. This is a claustrophobic psychological duel and pitch-black satire. If you want high-octane explosions, look elsewhere. If you don't mind feeling a bit sick and confused by the end, it's for you.

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!

London Film Festival review

For a moment BUGONIA is like watching "Misery" or "Funny Games" through the lens of 1950s Hollywood dystopian paranoia films. Yorgos follows the sadistic path he started in The Killing of a Sacred Deer and Kinds Of Kindness playing with Kubrick-like visuals and sounds to deliver a fairly straightforward cynical fable until it's not.

Emma and Jesse explore a violent theatricality and beautiful expressionism to great success. Both are harrowing and spectacular (this is Plemons best part ever) but are also limited by the linearity of it all. The last act reconnects Lanthimos with his subversive, unpredictable and absurd poetry but I guess Media, Politics and Truths are this year's true topics. Not surprising this film shares common grounds with Eddington.

I wanted to love it but I just really really liked it.

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 classic Yorgos Lanthimos movie as it examines the darkest parts of human nature in a characteristically darkly comedic fashion but it also offers something different when it operates as a tense thriller. It's a neatly structured film that only gets better once things properly escalate in a genuinely shocking way and it reaches a satisfying conclusion. This is another recent release which really feels of the moment.

Jesse Plemons is amazing by being fully committed to the naivety of his character which makes him equally threatening and gullible. Emma Stone is effortlessly confident and funny as she slowly begins to control the situation, continuing her winning collaboration with Yorgos in a way that shows her full potential once again. It's the constantly shifting power play between these two that keeps it so investing and unpredictable.

Director Yorgos Lanthimos delivers one of his strongest films to date where the trademark surrealism feels more appropriate thanks to the premise whilst working with some of his most consistent collaborators behind the camera. Robbie Ryan's cinematography knows how to make each scene look beautiful and surreal at the same time, complimented by Jerskin Fendrix's suitably paranoid score ensuring everything feels ominous when needed.