Editor’s Note: Freeline Media’s movie critic, Mike Fried, is back with his thoughts on Bugonia.

By MIKE FRIED

BUGONIA

***1/2

Two conspiracy theorists believe that the CEO of a multinational company is an alien from the galaxy Andromeda and believe that there is going to be an alien invasion four nights hence on the evening of the next lunar eclipse. They take steps to kidnap her and must avoid questions from a local constable with whom one of them has a dark past.

I have to be honest — this is one weird fucking movie. It goes from madcap humor to high drama.  But, having said that, it’s not a bad one; however, it just doesn’t reach the heights of which it was capable. It is a loose remake of the Korean film Save The Green Planet, and supposedly the director of that one was to do an American version and then had to back out so Yorgos Lanthimos was asked if he’d like to tackle it and he said “Yeah … sure.”

A lot was made about Emma Stone shaving her head for this movie and, yeah, sure there’s that, but she delivers a striking performance as the CEO, Michelle Fuller, who is an A-type pushy personality who mandates that people must leave work at 5:30 p.m. so that they can be with their families so there can be a solid work-life balance — unless, of course, they have work to do (of course). She is terrific in her determination to get out of a bad situation by trying to reason with her abductors.  She once again proves that she is one of the preeminent actors working today.

Oscar-worthy roles?

However, it is beyond doubt that it is Jesse Plemons who steals the shit out of this movie. His Teddy is too smart for his own good, maybe even smarter than he thinks he is, but he is convinced beyond doubt that Stone is an alien, and he has facts and figures to back this up. He sounds like one of these guys on ham radio (or, unfortunately, regular radio and television) who babble on about nonsense and strings together random ideas to create a worldview in line with their expectations; but the conclusions are  thoroughly irrational. His mercurial and dynamic performance is one that will be, in true Oscar fashion, doomed to be ignored during award season, which is a damned shame because he powers the piece and he brings to life a pretty good screenplay by Yorgos Lanthimos, one that is very biting, very dark and very pleasing –- at least up until the last ten minutes.

And as good as Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons were, I was blown away by the performance of newcomer Aidan Delbis who plays co-abductor and Teddy’s cousin, Don, who is intellectually disabled. He just doesn’t want to be involved in this abduction but is so manipulated by Teddy that he engages in a forced, chemical castration in order to, as Teddy puts it, avoid letting “all that gunk” obscure their thought processes. This is his acting debut, and he just plays the role to absolute perfection. I’d love to see a Best Supporting Actor nomination for him.

The musical score by Jerskin Fendrix is bombastic and grandiose but in the very best of ways. It highlights tension when it needs to and is restrained when it needs to be as well. Similarly, the production design -– involving actually building a house and its camera-friendly basement from scratch — and Robbie Ryan’s cinematography were excellent, especially the latter emphasizing Stone and Plemons’ visages. It was filmed in VistaVision and the use of this process really shows and makes a difference. I am really glad it is making a comeback because it looks so good on the big screen.

About That Ending ….

Now, many of you who know me know that I am not the sharpest tool in the shed — far from it — but I saw the ending of this movie coming from a mile away (albeit played out a little differently in my mind and of course my way was better) and the way Yorgos Lanthimos handled it just, in all honesty, left me flat. It was almost as if the previous 105 minutes of the movie was a distraction from what was to come and, quite frankly, the ending was a bit of a letdown. I would have filmed it differently and I know I can hear you all collectively saying What the fuck do you know, Mike? You’re not a fucking filmmaker so shut the fuck up. And I take the point.

But once again, if you’d like Jesse Plemons as I do, you will really enjoy this movie

WATCH IT and keep an open mind

Michael Fried has no formal training in movies, except having watched over 26,000+ movies — if not more — in his 60-plus years on this planet, starting with Goldfinger as his first cinema experience. He knows what he likes and he knows what he doesn’t like, and it’s quite often different from the conventional wisdom. He knows that the best franchise is Godzilla and he loves action movies and comedies. He has not been nominated for any awards except some boring insurance awards which has no applicability to movies (with the possible exceptions of Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity and John Cassavettes’ Big Trouble). He is part of a team that won the 1980 SUNY Albany Trivia content by correctly guessing the question, “Who played the president of Klopstockia in Million Dollar Legs?” So he has that going for him, which is nice.

Contact Mike at moviemike3@yahoo.com and mike.fried@yahoo.com.