Bugonia (2025)

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So its November and that means movie package time, 4 weeks of intense movie watching to catch up on the last 12 months of films now on streaming here in the U.K. Sky Cinema is the biggest movie package we get of post cinema releases. Bugonia is first up, the Oscar 'Best Picture' nomination that didn't trouble the scorers. Its a remake of the Korean movie 'Save the Green Planet' (2003) and just slots into the Sci-Fi genre. Its directed by Yorgos Lanihimos, a really out there director that often makes pretentious and oddball movies, none more so than The Lobster. He also did the incest movie Dogtooth and Killing of the Sacred Dear, and Poor Things. Here he teams up with the fearless actress Emma Stone again ( Poor Things) and everyman Jessie Plemons, that guy you see in loads of movies these days, and , indeed, older movies, as you say, 'oh, its that guy...'?. He's not handsome enough to be a leading man but cornered the market in menacing villain roles. -------------------------------------------------- Emma Stone plays the head of a Hi-Tech Big Pharma multinational, who Teddy (Plemons) and his retarded cousin have grievance with. Teddy's mom is in a coma from testing one of her new drugs and they want it sorted. They are conspiracy theorists and plan to kidnap her, bizarrely believing she is an malignant alien-being belonging to the Andromedon's and, they believe, responsible for killing off honey bees on Earth to destroy humans. They think her mothership is coming in 4 days time at the next Lunar Eclipse and they want her to leave on it and not destroy Earth. They duly kidnap her, chain in their moms basement and want her to confess who she is and why she is on Earth. It then becomes a battle of wits for her to try and escape these morons and crazy ideas. --------------------------------------------------- Stone is a thrilling actress in the Julian Moore/Jessica Chastain breed and strong again here. She even shaved off all her hair for the role, incredibly brave by any female in any walk of life. To get her to do it, the director shaved his hair off in support. She had to keep it shaved for 6 weeks of the shoot. She is actually shaved bald by Plemmoms in the movie. I enjoyed it but no Oscar movie for me, as are most Oscar nominated movies these days. Its a bit slow, and paced as a dark comedy. as the plot decides whether she is an alien or not or this is a simple head games thriller. Its not that funny or thrilling. Its all about the ending, which does deliver. As I say ,the director takes on movies in an unusual way and although this one is fairly conventional for him, its still him. I have hated most of his movies so far although this one bearable. Its OK but not as good as it should be to get critical attention.