Bugonia is the sort of film that wants to keep you guessing and it is very effective in making you do so. The film is rather relentless in building up a narrative that our main character is "crazy" and while you may feel sympathy for him and the history that drove him to what he is doing, we are to dismiss his obviously insane ideas and root for the undermining of his plan. Or are we? The film hints are perhaps some truth to what he is doing. It juxtaposes our desire to be rational, with the true frustration of needing there to be some explanation for the pain and suffering that so many people are crushed under the weight of. The continued suffering of so many cannot simply be the excused greed of a small minority of powerful people whose basic fears and passions are the same as everyone else's, right? But wouldn't that be crazy?
I'm not going to spoil the ending of Begonia... yet. The film creates a compelling game of cat and mouse between Plemons and Stone who both do wonderful work here in this nihilistic cautionary tale. So much holds us captive to the story. The film plays with our discomfort with violence and kidnapping, so it can hook us into its morality play. And it keeps us guessing until the end.
My main critique is the way the film clings to its absurdist aesthetic. This is something that Lanthimos brings to a lot of his work and it often doesn't work for me. Here is doesn't ruin what is otherwise a fascinating power struggle, but it does keep the audience at arms length. We don't have to take much of it too seriously, which saps the power of the ending which is truly quite striking. Perhaps Lanthimos' was worried the denouement would be too earnest, and need to keep the irony flowing to make it more palatable. I think I would have preferred the different take. One example of how the film keeps things "safe" by being in-your-face preposterous is the film's score which is self-aggrandizing and often self-consciously conspicuous in a way that takes us out of the film reminding us that no matter how much the film transgresses it's all just a film, a story, so don't worry.
I still enjoyed the film and will find its themes interesting to reflect on. I also appreciated Stone and Plemmons' strong performances here which kept Bugonia grounded despite how much it wanted to blast off into a dark silliness. But stop reading here is you don't want it spoiled cause I have one more thought which can only be discussed with *spoilers*.
I am still wrestling with the film's implication that the Andromedean plan was one of charity. I appreciate the critique of humans as a selfishly self-destructive species. But when the film has placed its "combatants" as a poor working man who has had everything taken from him against an obviously hypocritical CEO who clearly thrives off the suffering of others, to turn her into a saviour figure who fails in her benevolence due to humanities own failures feels like a dissonance I can't square. Regardless I am thinking about it and I likely will give a lot of thought to Bugonia over time.
Bugonia
Starring: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Aidan Delbis, Stavros Halkias, Alicia Silverstone
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Writer: Will Tracy
No comments:
Post a Comment