Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos’ collaborations have had fans constantly wondering what the two will do next. And that question was answered with news of Bugonia. The film, written by Will Tracy, follows a man named Teddy (Jesse Plemons) who is so consumed by his own conspiracy theory, he captures a woman.
Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone) is the CEO of an important pharmaceutical company whose work has hurt some people, including Teddy’s family. So through her own perception of the situation and Teddy’s view of who Michelle truly is, the two have a squaring off type of relationship while Michelle was in his grasp.
And if you think that a movie about whether or not off the rails conspiracy theories are true, there is an underlying important message in Bugonia that I think is incredibly important to remember: Behind any good conspiracy theory, is a question buried deep within it that has some validity to it. Not to say that there is a truth to everything, but the questioning of something does make sense.
Teddy, like many others, takes his more delusional thoughts to an extreme and believes himself to be completely right, missing the parts of this story that he is correct on. Which is where most conspiracy theories go off the rails as is. But Tracy and Lanthimos teether the line beautifully between the absurd, the lies, and where the truth lies for Michelle and Teddy’s dynamic.
A commentary on our connection to those our jobs “benefit”
Michelle is a powerful woman, telling Teddy at one point of her own history in science that then shifted to a career as a CEO for the company she (and Teddy) work for. And while both Michelle and Teddy are lost in trying to prove the other wrong, the one caught in the middle of their back and forth is Don (Aidan Delbis).
Don serves as kind of the middle ground where the truth lies in these situations. You have people on Michelle’s side who are devote in their belief that they are correct and then you have people like Teddy who feel the same way. While Michelle, at times, hides her fear and true feelings behind her faux “compassion” for the situation, it means that Don ends up being the one person who sees the entire situation for what it is.
Stone, Plemons, and Lanthimos all know how to effortlessly weave the absurd with an impactful story and Bugonia is ripe with opportunities for it. It takes them at every turn and, for the most part, executes them all flawlessly. From brilliant sparring matches between Michelle and Teddy to a gut punch of an ending montage, there is a lot to love about Bugonia.
Out of Stone and Lanthimos’ collaborations with each other, this is one that I think will stand the test of time better than the other and I believe that it is the kind of movie that begs audiences to talk about it afterward and that’s beautiful to me.
(featured image: Focus Features)
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
