Admittedly, I tend to enter a Yorgos Lanthimos film with a fair amount of caution. The tireless Greek filmmaker has gained a high standing among many critics and awards voters, releasing three features in three years, all to widespread acclaim. The first was “Poor Things”, an amalgamation of Lanthimos’s worst tendencies ramped up to 100. Last year we got the equally bad but even more forgettable “Kinds of Kindness”. Now this year it’s “Bugonia”,

Lanthimos brings back Emma Stone for their fourth consecutive collaboration. As Lanthimos’s muse, Stone takes the brunt of his vision, working within the punishing boundaries of the director’s harsh worldview. But unlike the exploitative carnality of something like “Poor Things”, Lanthimos only asks her to shave her head for “Bugonia” – a peculiar demand that only serves one reoccurring joke. But “Bugonia” gives us a lot more to talk about than peculiar hair choices.

As with every Lanthimos movie, you go into them expecting a bonkers story featuring off-kilter characters who at some point run the risk of mentally imploding to one degree or another. This is certainly true of “Bugonia”, a wacky adaptation of the 2003 South Korean genre mashup “Save the Green Planet!” from director Jang Joon-hwan. It’s penned by Will Tracy who also co-wrote 2022’s exceptional “The Menu”. And joining Stone is the film’s true star, Jesse Plemons along with Aidan Delbis, a terrific young actor on the autism spectrum. All three deliver in spades.

To be clear, “Bugonia” is bleak, cynical, and even nihilistic in its merciless critique of humankind. It’s a movie void of hope and with a grim outlook that fully manifests itself through gruesome and gory violence. Yet incredibly it’s simultaneously an absurdist comedy with pitch-black humor that surfaces throughout the movie. Somehow Lanthimos finds the balance between the two, and all while touching on such serious themes as alienation, dehumanization, societal collapse, and corporate duplicity.

Plemons plays Teddy Gatz a bee enthusiast and rabid conspiracy theorist who lives in his family’s old farmhouse with his neurodivergent cousin and only friend Don (Delbis). When not tending to his handful of bee houses, Teddy is filling Don’s head with a wild array of political, medical, biological, and social conspiracies. His biggest crackpot theory is that an alien race known as the Andromedans have infiltrated humanity, camouflaging themselves as people in power in an effort to take over Earth.

Elsewhere Michelle Fuller (Stone), the powerful CEO of the pharmaceutical company Auxolith, is going through the motions of polishing up her company’s public image. Amid shooting disingenuous HR videos about diversity and inclusion, she’s also deceitfully touting a new culture at Auxolith where the needs and wellbeing of workers is a new priority. But her facade of ‘benevolence’ shows cracks with such edicts as “Feel free to leave early,” followed with the qualifier, “Unless you have things to do.”

Teddy is convinced Michelle is an embedded Andromedan who is preparing things for the alien invasion. So he manipulates Don into helping him kidnap Michelle with plans of using her to negotiate a full retreat with the Andromedan Emperor. After snatching her, Teddy and Don sedate Michelle before taking her to the basement of their farmhouse. There they shave off her hair to keep her from communicating with her mothership and lube her down with antihistamine cream to keep her from being tracked. From there they must wait four days until the lunar eclipse which is when her mothership can arrive undetected.

It’s all so utterly absurd which Michelle is quick to explain to her captors. But Teddy is resolute in his warped convictions and pitiless in his responses to Michelle’s resistance. Interestingly though, while his life is marked by self-ruin, Teddy’s madness is rooted in tragedy which comes more into focus as Lanthimos steers him forward. It’s not enough to excuse his cruel and/or maniacal actions. But it gives meaning to his personal agenda while shaping Teddy into something more than an aimless head case.

As for Michelle, she’s no angel herself. The movie certainly urges us to root for her in her efforts to escape. But while it’s true she is a victim, Lanthimos frequently reminds us that Michelle is crafty and cutthroat to the bone. Her shady corporate savvy makes her a formidable opponent for Teddy, leading to a fascinating face-off between two iron wills. She’s just as ruthless with Don, aggressively manipulating him by shrewdly using her humanity as a weapon.

Things escalate quickly in the final 30 minutes as the violence ratchets up and the suspense builds to a boil. It leads to a gonzo ending that is utterly preposterous yet hits like a ton of bricks. It’s an emotional exclamation point that emphasizes the movie’s most urgent theme. There are some noticeable holes that are left unfilled which isn’t unusual for a Lanthimos film. But it’s still an issue that shortchanges both the audience and the story. Yet “Bugonia” overcomes its issues in ways most other Lanthimos movies have not, making it the director’s most satisfying effort to date.

VERDICT – 3.5 STARS