For three movies (The Favorite, Poor Things, Kinds of Kindness), Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos has teamed up with Emma Stone to (mostly) successful results. In Bugonia, their latest project, the two time Oscar winning actress plays a bossy CEO of a big corporation who is kidnapped by two conspiracy theory loons (Jesse Plemons and Aidan Delbis) who believe her to be an extra terrestrial. They keep her locked up in a basement, shave her head, and eventually torture her via electroshock.
The movie begins with an interesting premise, but quickly becomes another dull, mundane portrayal of a captured victim pleading with her tormentors to let her go because blah blah blah (I don't mean to demean the dialogue; I honestly thought no more of it than I've listed here). There is a good hour in the middle of the film that is a tiresome bore, a frailty typically uncommon in Lanthimos' best work (The Lobster and The Favorite). By the time we reach the (surprising? not really, but you be the judge) twist towards the end, the result is a whimper instead of a bang.
Perhaps it's time for Lanthimos and Stone to part ways for some time, and find inspiration with others Hollywood creatives. If last year's Kinds of Kindness was long and underwhelming, Bugonia is an equally uninspired mess that depends too much on shock value than any actual narrative or character cleverness.
☆☆
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