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Although Lanthimos has moved away from the stilted hyper-stylised hallmarks which announced him to the filmmaking world at large, his preoccupation with misfits and oddballs endures. Limp-haired, grubby and isolated, Teddy has become entirely consumed by his search for answers, mired by anger and pain following the slow deterioration of his mother following an opioid addiction and disastrous clinical trial which has left her in a\u00a0coma. Usually softly spoken despite his outlandish propensity towards violent outbursts adds an animalistic quality; Plemons is consistently diverting and haunted, eerily calm until he suddenly, shockingly isn\u2019t. At his side, newcomer Aidan Delbis more than holds his own, imbuing Don with a\u00a0tragic tenderness, exploitable because of the vulnerability which makes him such a\u00a0welcome contrast from his cousin. (This alteration from Jang\u2019s text \u2013 in which the kidnappers were a\u00a0couple \u2013 adds a\u00a0welcome emotional resonance.)<\/p>\n
Bugonia <\/i>is also far less oblique than Lanthimos\u2019 previous works, particularly his collaborations with Efthymis Filippou, and at times Tracy\u2019s credentials as a\u00a0former Succession <\/i>writer and Editor-in-Chief of \u200b\u2018<\/span>The Onion\u2019 are unmistakable. It\u2019s very much a\u00a0contemporary film, with Teddy gamely noting he\u2019d tried \u200b\u201c<\/span>the alt-right, alt-light, leftist and Marxist\u201d ideologies before settling on his alien conspiracy. Yet what might have been cloying even a\u00a0couple of years ago seems starkly real now, as western society fragments further into isolationism and individuals become radicalised by their own suffering and misdirected anger.<\/p>\n Despite Lanthimos and Tracy\u2019s past form for unbridled cynicism, there\u2019s a\u00a0strangled sort of sadness about Bugonia<\/i>; a\u00a0tangible pang of regret that humanity can\u2019t seem to help fucking itself over, time and time again. This is no screed against the dangers of online conspiracy rabbit holes (though the warning is implicit) or the many competing crises fighting for attention on a\u00a0daily basis, but rather a\u00a0lament for humanity\u2019s own \u200b\u201c<\/span>suicidal gene\u201d as Michelle puts it, and the parasitic nature of capitalism that exploits our biological vulnerabilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n And even beyond the question of \u200b\u2018<\/span>Is she or isn\u2019t she?\u2019 about Michelle\u2019s taxonomy, Bugonia<\/i> is undoubtedly a\u00a0sci-fi film, with Fendrix pulling in favours from John Williams\u2019 classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind <\/i>score and Price aping the apiary in his extraterrestrial design. Ryan too \u2013 one of contemporary cinema\u2019s most talented cinematographers \u2013 is firing on all cylinders, with the earthy greens, oranges and yellows that saturate Teddy and Don\u2019s cluttered cottage a\u00a0sharp contrast from the cool otherworldly sterility of Michelle\u2019s glass mansion, like a\u00a0spaceship dropped in suburban Georgia.<\/p>\n