Who can we blame for the state of the world? In Yorgos Lanthimos’s Bugonia, a class conflict becomes a war between species and a battle for survival. Teddy Gatz (Jesse Plemons), after facing a life of endless tragedy, becomes convinced that there is a cosmic reason for his suffering. He pins the downfall of society on an invasion of Andromedans, aliens with the faces of humans, who have successfully infiltrated our society. His primary target is Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone), a pharmaceutical CEO who, he’s convinced, is not from this world. So, when Teddy kidnaps Michelle and brings her to his home, it's a necessary evil: in his mind, he’s saving the human race from the Andromedans’ corruption.
As Teddy and his cousin (Aidan Delbis’s Don) interrogate Michelle, their personal connection becomes clear. Teddy blames Michelle and her company for his mother’s declining health — and beyond that, his conspiracy theories make Michelle the scapegoat for all of the Gatz’s troubles. Teddy’s troubled childhood, his hospitalized mother and even Earth’s environmental crisis become the fault of Michelle and her alien race. Teddy is unable to imagine that humans could be responsible for such suffering, and so he sets off on a noble quest to negotiate for humanity’s survival. Lanthimos fully immerses his audience in the mind of a conspiracy theorist. He’s clearly interested in exploring why humans are so susceptible to these theories. Teddy’s mindset makes sense — his life has been one misfortune after the next. It’s much easier to blame some higher power than to confront his mother’s struggles with addiction, his own lack of ambition or, most of all, the sobering fact that he has just been unlucky.
Bugonia is an English-language remake of Jang Joon-hwan’s South Korean film Save the Green Planet!, but it immediately distinguishes itself from its predecessor by gender swapping the central CEO. It also veers away from the source material by avoiding excessive violence. Lanthimos is extremely careful about what he shows on screen, making the moments of on-screen violence all the more shocking. This lack of gore, combined with the gender swap, only adds to the film’s tension. The ever-present threat of gendered violence is always simmering beneath the surface. Here, Lanthimos really sets Bugonia apart — I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was not a direct remake, but a new take on an increasingly timely story. Teddy hasn’t kidnapped Michelle just to torture her, and he claims to be against violence in all forms, but it doesn’t take long for him to snap. These sparing moments of brutality are all the more effective because of their rarity. My screening even had a few walk-outs, the tension being too much for some to handle (which, to me, is the sign of the film’s success).
Bugonia certainly isn’t an easy watch, but it’s quickly become one of my favorite films of the year. The movie is carried by three great lead performances — Emma Stone as the cold, calculating Michelle, Jesse Plemons as a conspiracy theorist on the brink of insanity and newcomer Aidan Delbis as Teddy’s cousin, Don, who adds a particularly interesting layer to Teddy’s character. Don has his doubts about Teddy’s theories and knows that what they’re doing to Michelle is wrong but struggles to go against the only family he has left. Trauma and tragedy have brought Teddy and Don together, but Michelle sees a morality in Don that she knows she can exploit to earn her freedom. My favorite scenes of the film are the conversations between these three characters, each with their own complex motivations and goals.
Bugonia is one of the tensest, most thrilling films of the year and also one of the most timely. Teddy’s mindset is not so far removed from the conspiracy theorists you can find online. What Lanthimos seems to be exploring, most of all, is not just how the culture of conspiracy can prey on vulnerable minds, creating a cosmic explanation for suffering where there is none, but also how these theories distract from the real, tactile reasons for the state of the world. Teddy is completely uninterested in Michelle’s wealth or status. Her company is causing real harm to human beings and the environment, but Teddy is only interested in her supposed infiltration. Teddy’s solution is easy — through Michelle, he plans to make contact with the Andromedans and force their withdrawal from Earth. Really getting to the root of the problems that plague him is much harder. He doesn’t want to address the class conflict, so he invents a war between species. Bugonia’s insight into humanity makes it one of the most unique films in recent memory and makes it, however uncomfortable, worth watching.
Nicholas York is a junior in the School of Arts and Sciences. He can be reached at nay22@cornell.edu.
‘Projections’ is a column focused on reviewing recent film releases.
