BUGONIA
**
Starring Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Aidan Delbis.
Comedy, US, 118 Minutes, Certificate 15.
Released in Cinemas in the UK by Universal Pictures International on 31st October
After the success of their Oscar-winning period sci-fi take on Alaisdair Gray’s POOR THINGS and the frequently absurd anthology KINDS OF KINDNESS, director Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone re-unite once again for a remake of SAVE THE GREEN PLANET, the South Korean box-office hit from 2003. UK audiences may be familiar already with the story as it was released as part of Tartan Films Asia Extreme, a sub-label that also introduced such films as RINGU, AUDITION, BATTLE ROYALE and OLDBOY to UK audiences, arguably popularising both Japanese and South Korean genre cinema with Western audiences. The promise of Lanthimos and Stone remaking such a singular film that stood out at the time from its contemporaries due to its juggling of tones and genres is an enticing one, leaving fans of this creative pairing wondering what exactly their spin on it will look like.
Sadly even without comparing it to the original, the results are quite lacking. The thin script by Will Tracy, who previously wrote the also underwhelming THE MENU, takes much of the original film's story and fails to add anything new that is interesting or unique. The plot involves Jesse Plemons as the unhinged Teddy, an unemployed beekeeper convinced that Emma Stone’s high-flying pharmaceutical CEO Michelle is actually an alien from the planet Andromeda who has been sent to deplete the planet of its resources. With the help of his simple minded cousin Don, Teddy kidnaps Michelle, demanding that she set up a meeting with her planet's royal family where Teddy will expose and confront them. As Michelle desperately tries to convince her captors of her humanity, she soon realises that there is no convincing Teddy, whose own tragic past may be the trigger for the situation she now finds herself in.
The pleasure of the original film was the guessing game it played with the audience as to the true nature of what exactly was going on. While gender flipping the role of the CEO from male to female here gives the film an interesting new dynamic, Lanthimos and Tracy have stripped back a much more interesting back and forth between kidnapper and hostage that made the original plot such a high-wire act that had the audience switching sympathies between the two on a scene to scene basis. The character of Teddy is a thin allegory for the delusional Flat Earther conspiracy theorists who now plague social media and the airwaves with their own bizarre theories of “what is really going on.” While it gives this version a more contemporary edge, Lanthmos’s deadpan and cold directorial style fails to engage fully. Ari Aster, who takes on producing duties here, made a far more entertaining and sly job of the same issues in this summer’s EDDINGTON, which also featured Stone in a similar role to Plemons.
The main reason to see the film is for the double act that Stone and Plemons provide. Set mainly within a dingy basement, and somehow costing twenty million dollars more than the fantastical POOR THINGS, the duo hold the attention, making the most of the script with their sharp dialogue. Plemons comes across as a schlubbier, less sharp version of his scene stealing character from last year's CIVIL WAR, while Stone does an equally fine job in conveying disbelief at her situation. They both rise to the occasion here keeping the interest up until the film reveals what exactly is going on.
Even for those of us who have seen the original, we are kept guessing as to how things will turn out, wondering if Lanthimos will follow the original template or come up with something new. The results may be a little bit stranger but still come up short compared to the tragic pathos that made the original film so memorable. Even without comparing, this still feels like a slim exercise in storytelling that without its powerhouse acting and amusing reveals has little else to recommend it or make it memorable.
Iain MacLeod