Bugonia

When Trauma Leads to Conspiracy

Oh, hey there. It’s been awhile, like a really long time no see type of while. I think I overcame my writing slump and I saw a movie recently. It was a good movie. It was crazy, to be honest. This movie was crazy and full of tension. There’s a lot there to unpack and think about with this movie that’s why I liked it so much.

The movie is Bugonia, starring Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons. I must admit that I had no interest in this movie when the teaser trailer came out. Here’s what I saw: Jessie Plemons plays a crazed outcast that kidnaps Emma Stone, a rich healthcare CEO. Seems basic, unoriginal, and very meh. There’s a lot of populist vs elite out there nowadays and looked to be on the less interesting end of that spectrum at the time. And then, my wife told me that she is thrilled about this movie and we HAVE TO SEE IT. My response:

But then, I read this:

“Adapted from the 2003 South Korean science fiction film Save the Green Planet!….

Two conspiracy-obsessed men (Plemons, Aidan Delbis) kidnap the CEO of a major company (Stone) when they become convinced that she’s an alien who wants to destroy Earth.”

Now, that is my type of shit! Sign me up! Here’s a full trailer that shows the alien conspiracy aspect of the film:

Bugonia opens up with cousins, Teddy (Jesse Plemons) and Don (Aidan Delbis), beekeeping and then scheming. They’re prepping for their ultimate abduction. There are weird homegrown terrorist vibes to this opening. I immediately thought of Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols prepping for the Oklahoma City Bombing or those morons that tried to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer during this sequence.

Jesse Plemons plays such a good villain/bully/lunatic. I still think about his role in Like Mike and how it felt like I was the one getting bullied, not Lil Bow Wow. Teddy is a full believer in his mission. I mean, you have to be to go so far to kidnap a famous CEO. Plemons becomes Teddy. He is deranged, angry, and thirsty for revenge.

You notice early on that Teddy is manipulating his cousin. Don has autism and follows along with everything that Teddy says, including getting chemically castrated (because they don’t want to get seduced by the alien). This is incredibly sad to watch. Don doesn’t know any better, but he often questions his cousins manipulations. This is where we need to give Aidan Delbis his flowers. He is actually on the spectrum and this was his first movie. He crushed the role and I fully expect to see him on the silver screen again.

The alleged alien that they plan on kidnapping is Michelle (Emma Stone). Michelle is a superstar CEO of an experimental healthcare treatment company. She’s the forward thinking feminist icon on the cover of TIME Magazine. To the world, she’s the role model for little girls. To her employees, she’s your typical corporate shrill that couldn’t care less about their lives as long as she looks good.

There’s a reason why Emma Stone has two Oscars for Best Actress. She’s great in everything she stars in. In fact, Bugonia is a reunion with Yorgos Lanthimos, the same director of Poor Things and Stone’s second Oscar win. I did not how much I needed Emma Stone lip syncing Chappell Roan before I saw Bugonia. Pure cinema.

So, the two cousins kidnap Michelle, hold her hostage, and interrogate her about her alien plans to destroy humankind. The tension among our three characters is palpable. Teddy wanting to break Michelle. Michelle wanting to negotiate her way out of captivity. Don juggling the morality of doing what is right versus loyalty to his cousin.

We learn that Teddy’s hatred for Michelle goes deeper than alien conspiracies. It’s personal. His mother is in a coma because of Michelle’s company and the side effects of their experimental medicine. This is a man whose conspiracies are based in childhood trauma. He was dealt the worst of cards in life and is enacting revenge on some outside, possibly interstellar force. He has taken the mantle of the human resistance. You may think he’s projecting is pain onto this wild idea of an alien infiltration, but could it go deeper than that?

Teddy sounds crazy, right? Yeah, well, we currently live in a world littered with crazy conspiracies. Have you ever asked yourself “What if they are right?” Well, what if they are?