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I can’t really tell you why I liked Bugonia. I know why I liked it but I can’t really tell you. 

To have a proper discussion of this film would involve revealing some keys aspects that are far better discovered when you are watching it, not reading about it, and I’m not going to do that. At least not now.

What I can tell you is that this is the third cinematic team up between Emma Stone and director Yorgos Lanthimos after The Favourite, Poor Things and Kinds of Kindness. She has barely made any movies with anyone else in the last seven years and he certainly hasn’t had anyone else take the lead for him recently. Apparently he is going to concentrate on his photography for a while now though so we might get to see Cruella 2. In terms of scale this is most akin to Kinds of Kindness, it even shares plot elements with two of the stories in the triptych from that movie with questions over someone’s real identity and the featuring of outlandish cultish beliefs. It is a bit more accessible than Kinds of Kindness but if you like any of this pairs previous collaborations then I think you’ll go with this too.

I can also share the set up. Jesse Plemons plays a guy who is convinced that Stone’s local business exec is an alien from another planet and kidnaps her with a view to saving humanity from invasion. This brings comedy as she initially tries to talk her way out of her situation using corporate speak and clearly is motivations are ludicrous. The film is also highly tense and frightening as you realise his bizarre fanaticism makes him dangerous and means he cannot be reasoned with. The dynamic between captor and captive is gripping, like in the play and film of Death and the Maiden but with a conspiracy theory spin. The other movie it put me in mind of was Borat Subsequent Moviefilm when Sacha Baron Cohen ends up lodging with two Trump supporters who genuinely seem to believe that Hilary Clinton is a satanist who drinks the blood of children and was part of a cabal that started the pandemic. There is some commentary on these kinds of people here.

In terms of where this all goes though and satisfying nature of the eventual denouement then we can maybe get into this later. Be advised that Bugonia is violent and quite shocking in places but it all serves its tight and focused narrative. The performances are great, including one from newcomer Aidan Delbis as the autistic cousin of Plemon’s deluded kidnapper. Stone doesn’t have any naked scenes in this one, unlike all of her previous Lanthimos films, but she does have her head shaved and it doesn’t really suit her. 

With the possible exception of The Favourite with its deceitfully familiar historical setting, this might actually be this director’s most mainstream movie but know that this is relative. It is still very quirky.

These then are the thoughts I can talk about at the moment, and the filmic comparisons I can make without revealing spoilers.

Let me know when we’ve seen it and can pick up on the other stuff then. That will be a longer conversation than this one.

I did even get to the bees.