The 2003 South Korean feature film Save The Green Planet was formed from two separate instances in director Jang Joon-hwan’s research. Firstly, his criticism of the lack of development for Annie Wilkes in the film adaptation of Stephen King’s Misery, resorting if he ever made a kidnapping film, it would be from the kidnapper’s perspective. The second half of his idea would come when he saw a crack website theory that Leonardo DiCaprio was secretly an alien invader who wanted to conquer the planet by seducing the earth’s population of women. An American remake of the 2003 film was in the works from the global pandemic, with the original director attached, Ari Aster on board to produce and Will Tracy adapting the screenplay. The big changes that would come from this new screenplay was the decision to gender swap the leading kidnapping victim from male to female and replace the kidnapper’s accomplice from his girlfriend to an autistic cousin. The gender swapping decision would be Joon’hwan’s final involvement in the film, as he dropped out and would become an executive producer instead, being replaced by director Yorgos Lanthimos.
Lanthimos was a perfect director for the material, a director who has a satirical and dark-comedy edge to most of his material, dealing with dark subjects in a way that never feels too heavy. Starting in experimental theatre, he made his directorial debut in 2001 with My Best Friend and broke out as a director when 2009’s Dogtooth was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. His immediate move to American-language features came to an immense success, with films like The Lobster, The Favourite and Poor Things leading to vast academy nominations across the board and leading to best actress wins for Olivia Coleman for The Favourite and Emma Stone’s second win for Poor Things. Poor Things was a smash-hit, receiving 11 nominations and winning 4, and Bugonia would be seen as his big next feature, after his anthology film, Kinds of Kindness in 2024.
Bugonia follows the same plot threads as the original South Korean film, following two conspiracy theorists who kidnap a powerful CEO, who they believe is secretly an alien who wants to destroy the planet. The kidnapping becomes more convoluted when the family members fail to trust each other, and revelations come to light about the CEO’s connection to the kidnapper’s dying mother.
The main draw of Bugonia is the excellent dynamic between kidnapper and kidnappee, with Jesse Plemons, Emma Stone and Aidan Delbis all delivering excellent performances. The strength of the script comes from the tension built by the reliability of all three characters, the movie keeps you guessing throughout whether Stone’s CEO is truly an alien or not, and whether Plemmons and Delbis are just insane conspiracy theorists. Outside of some backstory-filled flashbacks, the film is contained mostly just to the kidnapper’s house, but the film is above to drive so much out of one location with some excellent visuals from cinematographer Robbie Ryan. The film is colourful and bright while telling its bleak narrative, eye-popping visuals contrasting with the mundane nature of the setting, and the truly sad story on display. Ryan worked on Lanthimos’ previous three features, so it is only natural that he was able to continue bringing his eye-catching visuals to this narrative.
Aidan Delbis makes his film debut for this feature, submitting his own self-tape while he was still in the final year of high school. For a first-time actor, Delbis puts across an incredible performance, a performance and character that feels like the heart of the film, a meeting point between the conspiracy nut and the out-of-touch CEO. Lanthimos described his performance as the soul of the movie, he is the voice of reason who balances out Plemons’ unhinged performance, a simple but effective role in showcasing humanity in a world based around acting out of emotion. The fact that he can hold his own against such seasoned performers like Jesse Plemmons and Emma Stone is a testament to his natural acting ability. Emma Stone has starred in four Lanthimos movies so far, following her roles in The Favourite, Poor Things and Kinds of Kindness, and got her acting start mainly in comedic roles, with films like 2007’s Superbad, 2009’s Zombieland and 2010’s Easy A. Her roles have always been linked to her natural charisma, her comedic sensibilities and a level of empathy that have led to her blockbusters like 2012’s The Amazing Spider-Man, but this role uses those sensibilities to deliver a multi-layered performance that keeps the audience guessing.
There is always something off with her throughout, like an alien wearing a human’s face, a sense of dullness mixing in with her natural charisma and empathy. Her performance can be cold and frightening one minute, and then warm and empathetic the next. The film constantly feels like Plemons and Stone matching each other’s confusing performances and trying to one-up another. Plemons has made his career through supporting roles mainly in television series, including Breaking Bad, Fargo and Black Mirror. Once moving to feature films, he would commonly be typecasted in roles of characters that were commonly unnerving and sometimes creepy, which is what he played in his first collaboration with Lanthimos, in Kinds of Kindness. Plemons plays on this typecasting again here, down to even the greasy hair, the unkempt facial hair and his maniac body movements, but the film humanises him through his dynamic with Delbis’ character, keeping the character relatable enough so he can be still seen as a protagonist.
His tragic past with his mother, blaming her illness on Stone’s CEO character introduces a wrinkle to the story, humanising Plemons but also dehumanising Stone at the same time. The best scenes of the film come from the two characters bouncing off each other, with Plemons shouting out conspiracy theory rhetoric while Stone pleads for her life and tries to end things peacefully. Will Tracy’s script is incredibly effective in leaving both characters feeling inhuman but also human at various points, it is what an effective thriller should really be, keeping the audience guessing as they must play along. There is a clear critique of the upper class across this film, bordering on some rhetoric of eating the rich, but also some clear criticism of internet-dwelling conspiracy theorems.
There is a level of Lovecraft sensibilities to the plot as well, with the major conspiracy focusing on the alien’s controlling society and dumbing down the masses, almost like John Carpenter’s They Live. The biggest message that the film pays service to however is an environmentalism message, blaming the upper classes for the engagement of animals and the loss of habitats. Frequent shots of beehives hammer home this message, and the title even derives its meaning from the belief that bees could arise from the flesh of a sacrificed bull. This could dwell on either meaning, that the aliens must die to save the population and nature itself, or the Earth will become a better place for animals once the aliens wipe us out.
Bugonia is an effective thriller throughout, a film which hides its true tone in its dark comedy genre, as it relays an increasingly saddening story. Jesse Plemons, Emma Stone and Aidan Delbis make up an entertaining trio of actors to follow, as the fantastic script by Will Tracy and Lanthimos’s superb direction allows the film to drive the most out of a contained narrative. The most effective part of it is the fact it constantly makes the audience question every character’s motive, and if they are telling the truth, and when the answers finally come, they are incredibly rewarding.
Rhys Reviews 