Emma Stone shines in Yorgos Lanthimos’ Bugonia at Venice Film Festival

Emma Stone portrays a formidable CEO who becomes a hostage to two men who mistakenly believe she is an alien.

Even though it sounds a bit strange, Bugonia is one of the most talked-about films at this year’s Venice Film Festival. This is because it shows how conspiracy theories and echo chambers can affect people in a very different way.

It’s easy for the movie to have turned into a preachy speech about how dangerous the internet is. However, Bugonia, which was directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, is juggling a lot more than you might think, and there is more going on than meets the eye.

“There’s so much that’s happening that I think is reflective of this point in time and our world,” Emma Stone says at the film’s premiere, “and is told in a way that I found really fascinating, moving, funny, messed up, and alive.”

Lanthimos and Emma Stone have worked together four times before, on The Favourite, Kinds of Kindness, and Poor Things. The 36-year-old Stone won her second Oscar for best actress for her role in Poor Things.

“The opportunity to get to work on these things that I have with him has been just a dream,” Emma Stone says, “because this material, there’s so much [to confront].”

Some people might not like the director’s movies because they are often scary, weird, and bloody. But this one also has those things, and people who had trouble with his earlier movies might find Bugonia easier to watch.

Regardless of your perspective on aliens, the film presents a gripping tale of abduction and an exhilarating experience.

Michelle Fuller, played by Emma Stone, is the CEO of a pharmaceutical business that a troubled young man named Teddy (Jesse Plemons) blames for his mother’s illness and the loss of bees.

So, Teddy carefully plans the kidnapping with his cousin Don (Aidan Delbis), who doesn’t want to do it. Stone fights very hard, but eventually he is locked up in Teddy’s basement, where most of the movie takes place.

With foil on the windows around Teddy’s house, it’s easy to think he’s crazy, but the movie slowly shows more of his personality and looks into the things that made him who he was.

“Throughout history, there has been a human instinct to unconsciously categorize someone, and I think I probably tried to do that [with Teddy] when I started reading this script,” Plemons says.

“I could talk for hours about Teddy’s core, his relationship with Don, and what you find out happened to his mother. But the way I saw him, he was a really troubled soul who was trying very hard to help.” I know it’s crazy to say that, but I do.”

Teddy believes that capturing the CEO and extracting information from her is best for all. Many people would laugh at him for some of the things he believes, but that’s the point.

Nikki Baughan of Screen Daily wrote, “He rants and raves a lot, but Plemons brings a lot of depth to Teddy, a man who has shut himself off because of past traumas.”

“We know who to believe in this battle of wits between this well-dressed, well-behaved woman and this crazy, pony-tailed country bumpkin.” But can we? “Should we?”

Plemons, who was nominated for an Oscar for The Power of the Dog, says that Bugonia interested him because it made him question what he thought about people who are on the edges of society.

“I think we have an instinct in general to close the book on things that are scary, hard to look at, and hard to understand.”

“As an actor, it’s a way for me to try to make sense of things and people that are difficult to understand.” And it’s risky to dismiss them as not human, since they are human and live.

Bugonia is a loose remake of Jang Joon-hwan’s Korean sci-fi movie Save the Green Planet!, which came out in 2003. However, Plemons says he didn’t watch it before filming so that he wouldn’t be affected by it.

Emma Stone had to shave her head for the role. Or, to be more precise, for the two guys who have her captive to shave it.

“Was shaving my head simple?” The star laughs. “It was the easiest thing in the world; all you have to do is take a razor and shave.”

Is she open to the idea of aliens? When asked, she doesn’t completely dismiss the thought.

“One of my favorite people who has ever lived is [astronomer] Carl Sagan,” she says. “After watching his show Cosmos, I fell deeply in love with his ideas, his science, and his overall brilliance.”

“He truly believed that the thought that we are the only ones in this huge universe was a very selfish one.”

“So yes,” she jokes, raising her hand, “I’m going to say it: I believe in aliens. Thank you.”