Emma Stone stars as Michelle in “Bugonia” (Photo Credit: Atsushi Nishijima/Focus Features).
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(“Bugonia” trailer courtesy of Focus Features)
RegalMag.com has begun to sound like a broken record with some of its movie reviews lately.
For years, this publication, and many others, has complained about the lack of originality coming from Hollywood.
Seemingly, some movie executives can only greenlight sequels, remakes and prequels.
However, “the online magazine honoring our royal heritage” must give credit where credit is due, even if too much originality can create another problem for the movie industry.
Nevertheless, RegalMag.com has to say again that Hollywood has finally read the memo from moviegoers, desperately pleading for something unique and original.
With “Bugonia” filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos (“Kinds of Kindness”) delivers a movie that is sick, crazy, weird, manipulative and one of kind, for better or worse.
Sorry for burying the lead.
However, the set up was very necessary!
In “Bugonia,” Teddy (Jesse Plemons, “El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie”) is certain that the government and extraterrestrials are controlling human beings, their life, their behavior and even their health.
He has done his own “research” on the Internet and believes that pharmaceutical companies are conducting experiments on people, instead of treating them for their illness.
Although normal human beings like himself and his cousin Donny are not perfect and are not above reproach, most people are just cogs in the machine, doing their best just to keep their heads above water.
And the machine, like themselves, are being manipulated by the elites and those and those allegedly trying to blend in with the elites like Michelle (Emma Stone, “Eddington”).
In “Bugonia,” Teddy has convinced himself and his not-so-smart cousin Donny that Michelle, the CEO of the company that Teddy works for, is not human.
Although Michelle has mastered the mannerisms and the speech of humans, Teddy believes that she has come from outer space to eventually destroy mankind.
In fact, the clinical trials being conducted on unsuspecting medical patients are just fact-finding missions for Michelle to take back to outer space so that her emperor will better understanding his oblivious adversaries.
To stop the emperor from completing his mission, Teddy has convinced his cousin to help him abduct Michelle so that they can pry information out of her about her mission while on Earth.
However, it is imperative that Teddy and Donny complete their Earth-saving mission before the lunar eclipse because that is when the emperor will come to Earth in the mothership.
The mothership can travel to Earth at that particular time because it will be undetectable during the lunar eclipse.
While kidnapping a slender female should not be a problem for two able-bodied grown men, Teddy knows it will not be an ordinary fight because Michelle is allegedly not human.
He knows that Michelle’s alleged species are training physically for their mission.
Therefore, Teddy and Donny must be at peak physical conditioning to successfully kidnap their prey.
It is also important that the cousins keep their minds clear because the alleged alien will no doubt try to manipulate them into aborting their heroic mission.
The cousins must chemically castrate themselves too so that Michelle cannot use her feminine charm to woo the young men into aborting their mission prematurely.
Donny is with Teddy’s plans until he mentions the castration component of the caper.
Although he does not seem to be the type of person that would be successful with the opposite sex, he still has hopes that one day he can hook up with a young lady and procreate.
But how can he procreate if he does not stop the alien invasion coming during the lunar eclipse?
Next, the cousins must cut all Michelle’s hair off early into their caper because Teddy believes her hair contains GPS technology.
Lastly, the cousins must spread antihistamine cream all over her body for God knows what hair-brain reason.
Once they have Michelle prepared and detained, they must get all the pertinent information out of her before the mothership travels to Earth during the lunar escape.
And as Michelle tells them, they must keep her under wraps even though the kidnapping of a rich and connected CEO will garner international attention and a worldwide manhunt.
Michelle clearly thinks the cousins are insane.
But people often say that there is a thin line between genius and crazy.
And people often say that if a person thinks everyone else is crazy, there is a good chance that they are the ones that are insane.
Well, Lanthimos’ movies can get a little crazy.
While “Kinds of Kindness” was way out in left field, “Bugonia” is a little more digestible.
“Kinds of Kindness” was a little hard to follow.
But “Bugonia” is very understandable considering the current political climate, inundated with wild conspiracies.
Although many people do not subscribe to all conspiracy theories, many of those same people would probably believe that some conspiracies are true and that the powers-that-be sometimes shield regular civilians from what is going on.
The dilemma is discerning what conspiracy theories are just ridiculous and which ones have some validity to them.
That presents a serious problem because reality is often crazier than some made up story on the Internet.
“Bugonia” benefits from the rapport that Plemons and Stone have with each other and with Lanthimos.
Furthermore, Plemons has the personality and look that makes him perfect for such eccentric and offbeat movies.
Nevertheless, the star of “Bugonia” is Aidan Delbis who plays Donny in an empathetic, Radio (Cuba Gooding, Jr. in “Radio”) kind of way.
While “special” characters from the past like Forest Gump made people laugh, Donny is the type of person people will feel for and want to give a big hug to.
“Bugonia” is beginning to get some Oscar buzz.
If those award rumors are true, Delbis should definitely get some love from the Academy.
But despite the buzz, “Bugonia” might be a little too odd for casual moviegoers.
However, at least filmmakers like Lanthimos are finally listening to moviegoers by not just giving fans the status quo and the predictable.
REGAL RATINGS
FOUR CROWNS=EXCELLENT
THREE CROWNS=GOOD
TWO CROWNS=AVERAGE
ONE CROWN=POOR
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