Nate At The Movies

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.

November has suddenly become jam-packed, not only with films that I want to see, but some real heavyweights, both in my personal rankings and probably at the Oscars, too. Bugonia fell squarely into both categories, and I’m glad to say that the Yorgos-Emma Stone experiment is now 2-for-3 (maybe 2.5-for-3, if I’m feeling generous towards Kinds of Kindness) in my book.

Morgan and I had a couple ask us as we both left the theater, “Did you know it was going to get that weird?”, and honestly, how did they not know? Bugonia’s story was predictably zany, but it felt more realistic and accessible than other Yorgos projects I’ve seen, especially Poor Things.

The conspiracy-heavy narrative was very timely, and I thought that I knew was Yorgos was trying to say with it before he turned the final act on its head. I loved his eventual message about our human perspective—how we may be “the little thing” to some greater power—and the bees also suddenly made sense, which made me smile.

From a craft perspective, Yorgos continued to excel. I noticed a lot of similar shots to Poor Things, especially the high-focus medium shots with super fuzzy backgrounds, which made a film taking place in such a mundane location unreasonably pretty. The music was also stellar and incredibly programmatic; rarely do non-blockbusters or animated movies utilizes such grandiose scores, but it worked to perfection here.

Lastly, as was to be expected from this crew, the performances were outstanding. Emma Stone could probably win an Oscar for every leading performance she’s given over the last decade, and Bugonia was no exception. Overshadowing her brilliance, though, was Jesse Plemons, who absolutely dominated in his crazy and scary lead role. There were shades of Heath Ledger’s Joker in his performance, and though I don’t think the Academy will swing his direction, he totally deserved it.

Bugonia was weird, as that couple was so alarmed by, but the film maximized the potential of its weird story. There were moments of great comedy, plenty of thrills and scares, and more blood and gore than I was expecting, given the small cast. Paired with a superb score and some great cinematography, and Bugonia will easily fight in the top weight class come awards season. I do think I prefer Poor Things by a hair, but I’ve also sat with the story for much longer. No matter where my preferences lie, though, it’s clear that Emma Stone needs to make movies with Yorgos for the rest of her life.