The Movie Man: Best Picture Nominee ‘Bugonia’ is Bizarre, Biting, Brilliant … and a Long Shot

Bugonia proves to be another successful collaboration between filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone. Having previously collaborated on The Favourite, Poor Things and Kinds of Kindness, they have proven themselves as reliable partners in filmmaking like De Niro and Scorsese, or Spielberg and the music of John Williams. This time, they have remade the 2003 Korean movie, Save the Green Planet!

I had previously written about how Poor Things was the R-rated version of Barbie when both were nominated at the 96^th Academy Awards. At this year’s 98^th Academy Awards, we can see again that Lanthimos has produced an R-rated version of another nominee: Train Dreams. Both movies are commentaries on nature and our place within it, but Train Dreams takes the PBS documentary approach while Bugonia is a thriller black comedy. It might be intense for some viewers, but for those of us who find this form of storytelling appealing, Bugonia is a genuine treat. Without giving away any spoilers, its ending reminded me of Kubrick’s Cold War satire Dr. Strangelove.

Stone plays a CEO (soft-spoken and passive-aggressive to her core) who has been abducted by a conspiracy theorist, Teddy (Jesse Plemons), who lives off the grid with his autistic cousin, Don (Aidan Delbis), convinced she is an alien who has come to sabotage life on Earth in a parasitic manner. I have nothing but praise for the depiction of Plemons’ conspiracy theorist character. He is the tragic reminder that conspiracy theorists are not stupid. In fact, they are too intelligent; they have lost trust in institutions that failed them. They are always aware that it is possible for anyone to lie. Delbis also deserves praise for Don, whose role can be compared to Lenny from Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men.

Bugonia’s odds for taking home the Best Picture Oscar are low, if I am to be blunt. The Oscars have rarely rewarded science-fiction movies (Everything, Everywhere, All at Once and The Shape of Water have won) and only one horror movie has ever taken home the big prize: The Silence of the Lambs. Perhaps the Oscars have been gradually opening to the bizarre as legitimate art over the last few decades? But anything can happen on Sunday, March 15.

Either way, it is a classic for years to come. It isn’t for everyone, but it will still be cherished.

About the Author: Having lived in Old Lyme and Lyme since the age of three, Kevin Ganey has a lifelong passion for cinema that goes beyond simply watching films. He is the creator of CityOfCinema.com, a site devoted to movie analysis, and co-hosts the Moviehouse Mystics podcast with Koda Uhl, available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.