BUGONIA (2025) ★
Given the topics this film deals with, it's a little bit odd that it feels as apolitical as it does. Watching it, I got the sense that Lanthimos (and/or screenwriter Will Tracy) were eyeing the polarized territory of 2026 and kinda declining to stake their flag anywhere in particular. As a result, there's something a little mushy at the core of this. And for what?: I'm not sure its rhetorical wiggling totally paid off, given that I've seen people criticizing this for its validation of certain strains of right-wing thinking and one must imagine that there are an equal number of people dismissing it as just more Cultural Elite Leftism.
And yet I'm not sure that this movie really needs a clearer point of view, and in fact one of the film's great maneuvers is the cleverness by which it shifts which characters we feel sympathetic for with each passing scene. That might ultimately leave us with a slightly off aftertaste: despite a terrifically staged final montage, we maybe walk away feeling like the film doesn't have much skin in its own game. But every moment of the runtime is legitimately gripping, thanks to Lanthimos' always-able direction, and it was easy enough to set aside my qualms and enjoy the ride it offers as a two-hour suspense thriller with some black-comedy elements, nothing more.
The performances help this along, of course—Stone, Plemons, and Delbis are all contributing good enough work that the weaker aspects of the screenplay barely register until later. (In this regard, this film resembled The Menu, another satire-shaped film penned by Will Tracy, which also suffered a bit from a certain strategic fuzziness to its aim but which also won me back with fun performances from its cast.)
