Two conspiracy-obsessed young men kidnap the high-powered CEO of a major company, convinced that she is an alien intent on destroying planet Earth.

Look, I get that Yorgos Lanthimos is not for everyone. Some of the times he’s not even for me. I did love Poor Things, his unhinged Frankenstein-like tale with his recent muse Emma Stone, who went on to win an Oscar for that role. But The Killing of a Sacred Deer and Dogtooth, two of his earlier films I found needlessly nihilistic and overly aggressive, whether or not they included great scenes and performances. I actually never even saw a trailer for Bugonia but took a shot given the talent involved. And grateful that I did.

It is weird. I don’t think there’s any getting away from that. The premise is rather mundane – Jesse Plemmons is Teddy, a reclusive, conspiracy theorist is convinced the CEO of a tech firm (Emma Stone, again, as Michelle) is an alien. No, really. Teddy convinces his easily manipulated cousin Don (newcomer Aidan Delbis) to help him kidnap Michelle in order to save the planet.

Oh, and Teddy is also a beekeeper.

Despite this simple setup and somewhat claustrophobic setting, the bulk of the film takes place in Teddy’s house, there are definite twists and supremely tenses scenes, and, naturally for Lanthimos, some cringey gore. Stone is magnificent, balancing Michelle’s somewhat insufferable CEO tendencies while also trying to deal with Teddy logically. Plemmons is masterful. His slow cadence and commanding presence (you know his character believes every crazy thing he says) works perfectly to make him both scary as shit and imminently watchable.

Adapted from a Korean film (Save the Green Planet, written and directed by Jang Joon-Hwan), Bugonia was adapted by Will Tracy, a six-time Emmy winner for Succession and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, and in a strange way both of those works feel like they helped gear Tracy up for this.

It’s a weird film, but I think it’s a great one, and it straddles the line of being topical and kind of out there.

Jonathan’s grade – A-