Best Pictures #120: 2025 (98th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee: Bugonia

by A.J.

Best Pictures #120: 2025 (98th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee

Bugonia

"Trust me. I've done a shit-ton of research on this."

I suffer from two compulsions: 1) I must watch every Best Picture Oscar nominee and 2) I have to watch everything Emma Stone is in. This year my dual afflictions converged with disappointing results. Bugonia has a premise that sounds intriguing but could potentially turn grim: Two cousins kidnap the CEO of a pharmaceutical company believing her to be an alien from the Andromeda galaxy here to destroy humankind. They have only four days–when they believe the mother ship will arrive–to force her to confess and cooperate. She tries to reason with them and convince them that she is not an alien. This is a science fiction premise but Bugonia is not a science fiction movie, not really. There are elements that resemble a horror movie, especially with how graphically violent it gets, but it is not a horror movie. I suppose genre-wise it is a thriller. It should be a psychological thriller, but it is not. It has some dark and awkward humor, but this is not a comedy or a satire. The only thing Bugonia is for certain is joyless and disappointing. 

Emma Stone, in her fourth collaboration with Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos, plays Michelle, the seemingly progressive CEO of a pharmaceutical company who uses lots of placating buzzwords and phrases (like “changing the culture” and “diversity”) and says that the staff does not need to stay after 5:30...unless they have work to finish. Jesse Plemons plays Teddy, a low level wage worker at the company, whose mother is in a hospital dying, he believes, because of the company and the nefarious alien plan. Teddy recruits the help of his cousin, Don (Aidan Delbis), who is reluctant but does not want to disappoint his cousin. Teddy is the ultimate example of a conspiracy theorist. He's done his own research online. He knows how to tell the signs of an alien, like narrow feet. He has created a model of what the alien ship probably looks like. Certain things he says lead us to believe that he has probably done this kidnapping and interrogation/torture before. 

Bugonia seems like it is going to tackle sociopolitical issues, perhaps even satirize them, or perhaps bring them up just to be provocative. The disappointment of Bugonia is that it doesn't do much of anything; it does not even offend. It seems that Teddy's suspicions of Michelle could be rooted in that she is at the top of the food chain at the company he feels has exploited his labor and his mother's health. His suspicions could also be rooted in misogyny; Teddy convinces Don that they need to chemically castrate themselves before confronting Michelle to protect themselves from attempts at seduction. Teddy's plan is to have Michelle admit that she is an alien and then take him to the alien mother ship so he can negotiate with the alien leaders the withdrawal of secret aliens from earth. Why would they negotiate with him? Does it have to do with the delusions of grandeur and unappreciated importance that are part of believing a conspiracy theory, that your secret knowledge actually makes you special and important and significant? None of this matters because the question of whether she is an alien or not is answered definitively without any room for ambiguity. One might expect that with this are-they-or-aren’t-they premise there would be disappointment no matter what. Some viewers would prefer certainty, some would prefer ambiguity. The main thing Bugonia does, even after it answers the alien question, is bide its time until the final minutes, which are the only thing that the movie and director Lanthimos really cares about.

The best thing, honestly the only good and enjoyable thing, about Bugonia is the performances by Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons. Stone received a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her performance (her 4th Best Actress nomination, two of which she has won; her 5th total acting nomination when you count her Supporting Actress nomination for Birdman) and though I am a fan, I have to admit that I am perplexed and disappointed by the performances the Academy chooses to recognize, Bugonia included. Jesse Plemons, who was not Oscar nominated, has the real stand out performance. He elicits almost every possible reaction as his character is villainous, crazed, sympathetic, lost, over confident, and insecure. The film’s awkward sense of humor comes mainly from Plemons. Early on in her captivity, Michelle says that she wants to have a dialogue. Teddy responds that this is not Death of a Salesman. Plemons and Stone are great facing off against each other. Honestly I would rather watch them in Death of a Salesman or something similar. 

That line shutting down having a dialogue really hits at the heart of the film. In Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis, the protagonist, Caesar Catalina (Adam Driver), declares that "We are in need of a great debate about the future." Yorgos Lanthimos does not want to have a debate or dialogue about the future or how or if people can or should change. In all of his films he has a dour outlook of humanity at large and of what particular people deserve. Here, that message is as blunt as possible.

I despised Adam McKay's doomsday film Don't Look Up, a 2021 Best Picture nominee, which used one apocalyptic disaster (planet killing meteor impact) as a metaphor for another (climate change) while blaming the audience for not caring and dooming the earth. Yet, I can see how that film could have been meant as a non-sugarcoated wake up call to change. The final moments of this film are not meant to serve as a call to change; they are not meant to shock the audience into rethinking things. They are simply drawn out, indulgent images of doom and gloom. 

The Korean film Save the Green Planet! on which Bugonia is based–not that Bugonia wants you know, as the credit for this is hidden in small font well into the closing credits–has the same conclusion but apparently different final imagery perhaps meant to be something more than a kick in the crotch or Nelson Muntz (of The Simpsons) "ha-ha" at the audience. There are good, even great movies, that have bummer endings. But those enhance the story and how it affects the audience. They linger in the mind and spark thoughts and conversations and debates. This movie sparks nothing. It is not misogynist or anti-capitalist, or woke or anti-woke, or even cynical. It is nihilistic but it is like the nihilists in The Big Lebowski who are kind of annoying and then run away after a minor scuffle. I can't even be mad at this movie because it amounts to such a nothing. This might be the first time that my reaction to a movie was to think of a bible quote (appropriately enough from Revelation): “So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.”

Bugonia is available to stream on Peacock.

Nominees: Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe, Yorgos Lanthimos, Emma Stone, Lars Knudsen, producers

Director: Yorgos Lanthimos

Screenplay: Will Tracy; based on the film Save the Green Planet! by Jang Joon-hwan

Cast: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Aidan Delbis

Production Companies: Element Pictures, Square Peg, CJ ENM, Pith, Fruit Tree Enterprises

Distributor: Focus Features

Release Date: October 24th, 2025

Total Nominations: 4, including Best Picture

Other Nominations: Actress-Emma Stone; Adapted Screenplay-Will Tracy; Original Score-Jerskin Fendrix

Best Pictures #102: 2023 (96th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee: Poor Things

by A.J.

Best Pictures #102: 2023 (96th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee

Poor Things

“I have adventured it and found nothing but sugar and violence.”

Poor Things is a strange and unusual movie and yet it tells a familiar story with familiar themes. It is a fable of a simpleton who goes out into the world, has new experiences, and inadvertently exposes the nonsense and hypocrisy of society that we all accept as normal. It is the approach and execution by director Yorgos Lanthimos and the stunning work by the costume designer and production designers that make Poor Things enjoyably outlandish and memorable. 

This dark, fractured fairy tale mixes elements of Frankenstein and Candide together in a steampunk blender. Emma Stone plays Bella Baxter, a living experiment who moves and sounds like a toddler-like creature though she has the body of an adult woman. She is the creation (of sorts) of mad scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe), who is her father figure and does not mind that Bella’s nickname for him is “God.” He enlists Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef), one of his university students, to track Bella’s development. She learns and matures and of course Max falls in love with her, but Godwin’s lawyer, Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), whisks her away on a tour of Europe with the promise of experiencing life outside of Godwin’s house and laboratory. And so Bella’s journey of enlightenment and eroticism begins. 

Emma Stone and Mark Ruffalo’s perfectly over the top performances are a large part of why Poor Things works at all. Stone is great at the broad comedy required. More importantly, she makes Bella’s resilient optimism believable instead of naive or annoying. It’s clear from his very first scene that Wedderurn is a lascivious cad of questionable scruples and also a bit of a buffoon; Ruffalo’s cartoonish take on this character is just right. Bella and Wedderburn’s tour of Europe begins in Lisbon and consists of lots of sex, which Bella calls “furious jumping,” and then more sex. (This film is certainly not shy about sex and nudity.) As Bella learns and experiences more of the world and other people she becomes harder to control and Ruffalo really lets his character’s petulant and buffoonish side take over with great comic results. Even with all the sex and nudity the most interesting parts of Bella’s journey are her encounters with a fellow couple on a cruise, a wizened older woman played by Hanna Schygulla and her younger traveling companion played by Jarrod Carmichel, and her return to London where her optimism and shunning of cruelty are tested.

Unusual though the characters and story may be, it is the production design and costumes that make the film eye-catching and memorable. The look is a highly artificial late Victorian steampunk fantasy version of the world, and it is a feast for the eyes. The scenes on the Mediterranean cruise, especially at night, have an enchanting, surreal aesthetic. Production designers Shona Heath and James Price have done some stunning work and have rightfully received Oscar nominations. Likewise, Bella’s costumes with huge puffy shoulders by Holly Waddington, also Oscar nominated, help create the bizarre fairy tale vibe. 

There are many points where Poor Things could lose a viewer. The use of a fisheye lens and swish pans, favorite techniques of Lanthimos, are jarring and mostly unnecessary since the production design, costumes, and makeup effects are already doing the heavy lifting in creating the unusual aesthetic. However, the element that may be a strange step too far and downright off putting for some involves Bella’s backstory. I’m not sure if this qualifies as a spoiler as it is revealed relatively early on, but I will write about it now. Dr. Godwin tells Max about how one day he found the fresh corpse of a pregnant woman who jumped from a bridge into a river to kill herself. Unable to resist the scientific possibilities, but wanting to respect the woman’s wish to be dead, he put the brain of the unborn baby into the woman’s head and brought her to life. Hence Bella’s toddling and broken speech. Though she learns and matures quickly, just as Frankenstein’s Monster did, there’s a certain uneasiness to men fawning over Bella, whose mental development is still in progress, especially in the early scenes. 

Poor Things has been described by many as a feminist film about a young woman taking agency over her body and her mind. This is certainly true. However, I would certainly not contradict anyone who found its brand of feminism fishy, seeing as how it is about a simple minded woman whose journey of enlightenment and self-realization involves lots and lots of very casual sex. It might come as no surprise to some that the main creative voices behind the movie are all male: director Yorgos Lanthimos, screenwriter Tony McNamara, and Alasdair Gray who wrote the novel. 

Yorgos Lanthimos, whose previous films include Dogtooth, The Lobster, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, and the Oscar nominated The Favourite, is no stranger to offbeat and challenging subject matter. Somehow Poor Things almost feels like a departure for him since it lacks the grim darkness of his previous films. Bella’s ever flowing optimism and belief in kindness are the heart of the story and make this an ultimately optimistic, life affirming film.

Best Pictures #51: 2018 (91st) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee: The Favourite

by A.J.

Best Pictures #51: 2018 (91^st) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee

The Favourite

“Favour is a breeze that shifts direction all the time.”

At first glance The Favourite might seem to be just another British costume drama but this very R-rated story about the private relationships of Queen Anne absolutely subverts genre expectations. Everything from the stylistic choices to the characters make this a darkly comedic, vulgar, and wonderfully outrageous film. This is one of my favorite films of 2018. It is so totally engrossing with such memorable characters and scenes (especially an elaborate and ludicrous dance) that I had to see it twice.

Queen Anne ruled England from 1702 to 1714. The highlight of her reign was overseeing the union of England and Scotland in 1707 (creating the kingdom of Great Britain), something no previous English king had managed to achieve. This film focuses not so much on history but speculates on her personal relationships. Her closest friend since childhood, Lady Sarah Marlborough (Rachel Weisz), acts as Anne’s caregiver, companion, adviser, and lover. She even runs the country for Anne. Lady Sarah’s status is challenged when her cousin, Abigail (Emma Stone), begins to work her way into the Queen’s favor.

Anne may have had a royal life but it was not an easy one. She suffered through 17 miscarriages, still births, and untimely infant deaths, the death of her husband, and many physical ailments. She was the last monarch of the House of Stuart and only 49 when she died. Olivia Colman wonderfully portrays Queen Anne as a fragile, wounded soul searching for small moments of happiness, and also capable of acting like a spoiled child or a mad monarch at any given moment. Though Anne is more of a supporting character, Colman has picked up an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. She’s so good I can’t complain about her being in the wrong category.

Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone are really the leads but they have each been nominated in the Supporting Actress category. Each actress gives the best performance of her career, though each already has an Oscar for a movie and performance I didn’t particularly care for (Emma Stone-La La Land) and a movie and performance I keep forgetting exists (Rachel Weisz-The Constant Gardener). Lady Sarah and Abigail offer Anne different kinds of love: Lady Sarah tells Anne the truth even if it is harsh and unpleasant, Abigail always flatters Anne. Weisz has no problem going from loving and sweet to stern and even cruel. She delivers crude, acerbic insults with deft ease. Weisz is also quite comfortable and easily believable as an intelligent, capable woman in power—using that power often and effectively—controlling and besting her male political counterparts. Both Weisz’s Lady Sarah and Stone’s Abigail manipulate Queen Anne for their own gain, but Abigail is the more insidious of the pair. Emma Stone has never had a role like this before. Her character is clever, funny, and charming, and also devious, selfish, and quite unlikable. Stone does a great job handling all the different facets Abigail. 

Director Yorgos Lanthimos and cinematographer Robbie Ryan make frequent use of fish-eye lens and canted angles to keep the audience off balance. They use slow motion for particular moments and holds on close ups of faces when the instinct of any other period movie would be to show as much as possible. The costumes by Sandy Powell look fresh and unique and not just like the costumes we see on a regular basis in period pieces. Lady Sarah, as a woman in power, is an unconventional character for her time and she has unconventional costumes to match. Her shooting outfit, which includes a hat and trousers, is the most memorable costume in the movie. Even the costumes for the men have interesting flourishes. Big, long crazy wigs were very in style. The foppish opposition party, led by Nicholas Hoult, even powder their faces. “A man must make himself look pretty,” he says.

Yorgos Lanthimos's previous films include the bizarre Dogtooth and the love it or hate it The Lobster (I hated it). This is easily his most mainstream movie, which is saying something since The Favourite might be the most unconventional period movie since Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette. Unlike his previous films, Lanthimos did not pen the screenplay (Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara wrote The Favourite's Oscar nominated original screenplay); this might be why the material is palatable. There is just the right blend of humor and melancholy in The Favourite, but as the film goes on it moves into dour territory in the third act. It is as if Lanthimos couldn't let a whole film go by without injecting some of his dour, bleak sensibility. Still, I very much recommend The Favourite for its fresh take on an established genre and the brilliant performances by Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz, and Emma Stone. Even as they are being outrageous and vindictive, these people are a delight to watch.   

Nominees: Ceci Dempsey, Ed Guiney, Lee Magiday and Yorgos Lanthimos, producers

Director: Yorgos Lanithos

Screenplay: Deborah Davis, Tony McNamara

Cast: Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz, Emma Stone

Production Companies: Scarlet Films, Element Pictures, Arcana, Film4 Productions, Waypoint Entertainment

Distributor: Fox Searchlight Pictures

Release Date: November 23^rd, 2018

Total Nominations: 10, including Best Picture

Other Nominations: Actress-Olivia Colman; Supporting Actress-Rachel Weisz; Supporting Actress-Emma Stone; Director-Yorgos Lanthimos; Original Screenplay- Deborah Davis; Tony McNamara; Cinematography-Robbie Ryan; Editing-Yorgos Mavropsaridis; Production Design-Fiona Crombie, Alice Felton; Costume Design-Sandy Powell