As Teddy Gatz tends his bee hives he is inspired to equate how their lives are influenced by higher forces, to how superior forces work on the human race. As they say on the TV show Ancient Aliens “I’m not saying it was aliens, but it was aliens.” Yes, he’s a full-blooded conspiracy theorist who does all his research online, of course.
His cousin Don, who has learning difficulties, is inveigled into accepting Teddy’s alien world-view and agrees to help him kidnap Michelle Fuller, the CEO of the Auxolith mega drug company. Teddy believes she is an extraterrestrial from the Andromeda Galaxy who is intent on controlling and manipulating humanity. Teddy not only wants to save humanity, but he also wants revenge for the testing on his mother by Auxolith that has put her into a coma.
There is an intense dialogue between captor and captured, where Michelle accuses Teddy of living in his own conspiracy-fuelled echo chamber, whilst he accuses her of being part of an alien plot to undermine humanity. In the middle of it all, Don is increasingly confused and worried by Teddy’s ever more extreme methods of interrogating her.
Teddy, as played by Jesse Plemons, is intensely convincing in his steadfast adherence to his theories, and Emma Stone’s portrayal of Michelle shows her remarkable ability to adapt and question her captor’s motives. Stuck in the middle is the befuddled Don, played by Aidan Delbis and the equally bemused and ineffectual local police officer played by Stavros Halkais.
The film can be seen as an exploration of the different worlds of Teddy and Michelle, where he is a lowly minion of her company who lives in a dirty untidy house, wears old dirty clothing and rides a bike, whereas she lives in a large modern house, drives a large SUV and is immaculately dressed. She is pushing the boundaries of biological research and is an entrepreneurial star.
Teddy deliberately switches himself off from the media world and his own physical desires to solely focus on defeating the Andromedans, whom he expects to arrive very soon in their Mothership when a lunar eclipse occurs. This scenario is very much like the belief of the Heaven’s Gate cult, who thought the comet Hale-Bopp was a spaceship coming from the Kingdom of Heaven. Even at that time in 1997, cyber culture and the internet was regarded as a large factor in their belief system.
Bugonia is a psychological thriller with large helpings of dark humour and sudden lurches into horror. As viewers we are challenged to judge where the division between reality and fantasy lies. Is all this in Teddy’s mind? What really happened to his family in the past? Is Michelle who she says she is? As the tension mounts, events turn into gory tragedy and the battle between Teddy and Michelle comes (literally) to a head.
Director Yorgos Lanthimos, who is best known for The Favourite and is the director of numerous horror/psychological thrillers, skilfully adapts the South Korean 2003 film Save the Green Planet! One of the major changes was turning the original male ET to a woman, but otherwise it keeps fairly close to the original film’s storyline.
On leaving the cinema you are left with a feeling of sadness tinged with being impressed by the film’s sheer audacity.
Bugonia is screening at Plymouth Arts Cinema from 14th – 20th November.
Reviewed by Nigel Watson
Comments
No comment yet.