Phrasemaker

Yorgos Lanthimos has been having an impressive run among art film lovers. Poor Things was the big event that hit the mainstream, winning four Oscars and cementing him as a darling director of cinema. Kinds of Kindness was his follow up just a year later, an anthology of strange tales, weaker than Poor Things, but with a pace and density of ideas that keeps it entertaining.

Bugonia comes as his third movie in his record pace, and I think you’re seeing the pattern here; It’s easy to see why Lanthimos has said that it’s time for him to take a break. The budget, cast, and story is smaller, and it’s a direct remake of an existing film (Jang Joon-hwan’s Save the Green Planet, 2003). Compared to his other films, it’s practically by-the-book. A victory lap, but also a step down creatively.

Despite being a fairly grim and gruesome movie, there are no big swings in Bugonia. Sure, heads roll, twists turn, and everything oozes with the classic Lanthimos deadpan, but if you’ve seen Save the Green Planet, it’s only a new coat of paint. Like a stage play with a new cast. 

That’s not a bad thing either, it’s a great cast. Stone and Plemons continue to be flawless Lanthimos muses, building off their Kinds of Kindness personas and enjoying complex roles with serious dramatic tension. But the heart of the film is a new actor, Aidan Delbis. He plays Plemons’ autistic cousin, Don. Delbis himself is autistic and this is his first on screen role, but he’s completely naturalistic and grounds the film perfectly. 

At times, Delbis is almost too natural in the role. Early on there’s a squirm-inducing scene where Teddy (Plemons) presses Don to join him in chemical castration, so that they can ignore Stones’ feminine wiles. Part of the magic is that we don’t know Delbis as an actor, we only know that Plemons is acting, so part of our brain wonders if Delbis is even acting. And of course he is, there’s a great interview with him here, but this magic trick of Lanthimos pulling an amazing actor out of a hat just for this role is one of the best things in the whole film, and makes every scene with Delbis all the more tense. 

And as one of the few tweaks that Lanthimos made to the story, it’s also heartening to know that Lanthimos hasn’t lost his creative edge, he’s just taking it easier on this on after a busy couple of years (in Jang’s film, Don’s character is a girlfriend instead). That said, it doesn’t let Lanthimos off the hook for a pretty average film in his repertoire. Stone, Plemons, and Delbis put on some of the best acting of their careers, while Lanthimos keeps them caged in a pretty standard setup. 

Originally inspired by Misery, Jang Joon-hwan wanted more depth to the kidnapper character. Misery is about a kidnapped writer being held hostage by a rabid fan, while Save the Green Planet & Bugonia are about a pair of isolated cousins kidnapping a pharmaceutical CEO. It’s a difference of perspective that put you in the chair of the accomplice rather than the classic horror victim. It’s a nice twist, but it’s also a depressing one. Lanthimos may not be known for inspiring joy, but some manage to do it anyway. Bugonia isn’t one of them.

So that’s all to say that while Bugonia is a good film, it’s not Lanthimos’ best. It could be the cast’s best. I haven’t sung the praises of Stone & Plemons much here, but they’re doing gorgeous work. Stone doesn’t need another Oscar so soon, but I’d love to see Plemons get one for this (he won’t). Hell, give it to Delbis, that’d make for a fun buzzworthy story, and it wouldn’t be unearned.

P.S. There’s fun cameos by Alicia Silverstone and Stavros Halkias for fans of those two too.