Bugonia (2025, R)

This is a wild movie. Which, given that it’s coming from Yorgos Lanthimos, is hardly surprising. I had mixed feelings about this one (also not surprising, honestly)—for the most part, it’s brutal but very good, but I feel like the ending kind of goes off the rails.

Teddy is many things: an amateur beekeeper, a warehouse worker for a giant pharmaceutical corporation, and a conspiracy theorist. He’s gone far down a rabbit hole researching the Andromedans, an alien race bent on destroying humanity. He’s convinced that the Andromedans have embedded themselves into society by posing as humans, and now, he’s put his cousin Don through a training regimen so they can kidnap one such Andromedan. As it happens, she’s the CEO of his company: Michelle Fuller. Teddy interrogates Michelle in the hopes of 1) getting her to admit her alien nature and 2) arranging a meeting on her mother ship, so he can negotiate the survival of the human race.

Bugonia is up for four Oscars. Besides Best Picture, it’s nominated for Best Leading Actress for Emma Stone, Best Adapted Screenplay (it’s based on a 2003 South Korean film called Save the Green Planet!), and Best Score. Again, I have issues with the ending, but other than that, the script is pretty great, the score does a lot to create atmosphere, and Stone is terrific!

Obviously, good swathes of this story are ridiculous. Michelle gives both Teddy and Don a pretty good beating when they come for her. Once they’ve taken her, Teddy slathers Michelle in antihistamine cream to “dampen her powers,” and he’s chemically castrated himself to prevent her from seducing him. There’s also some nice corporate satire, like Michelle singing the praises of the company’s new “you can totally go home at 5:30!” policy while emphasizing that employees can stay late if they choose and they should still definitely get all their work done before they leave.

But at the same time, there are genuinely disturbing elements here, as well as some painful ones. Teddy doesn’t just chemically castrate himself—he convinces Don, who is autistic and relies on Teddy for some support needs, to do the same. While Teddy’s taken a nosedive into wild conspiracies, he’s also experienced some horrific injustices in his life and hasn’t really dealt with grief/anger from that. And yes, it’s goofy that Teddy thinks Michelle is an alien, but he does violently kidnap a woman, hold her in his basement, and torture her for information. The film is funny and unsettling in almost equal measure.

The final stretch of the film, though, doesn’t really work for me. To be fair, since it’s an adaptation, I’m guessing the ending was already baked in. But I don’t like it. It feels like it undermines everything the film was trying to say and leaves me somewhat cold in the last sequence. It’s disappointing, because up until that point, I thought it was pretty excellent, albeit hard to watch at points.

Stone is fantastic in her nominated performance as Michelle. Regardless of whether she’s an alien, she is an objectively terrible person, but that doesn’t warrant Teddy’s actions toward her. It all adds to the complexity of the film, and it’s really interesting to watch Michelle navigate this situation, trying to manipulate the guys and get away. Jesse Plemons does a really great job as Teddy. He’s comically unhinged, intensely focused, and deeply hurting—Plemons balances the different parts of the character, making them all work in a sort of unbalanced harmony. And Aidan Delbis is quite good in his film debut as Don. Delbis is autistic himself, and Don is an active participant in the story with his own point-of-view—you love to see it.

Warnings

Strong violence (including torture,) strong thematic elements (including suicide,) language, drinking/drug references, and sexual references.

Doctor Who: Series 5, Episode 6 – “The Vampires of Venice” (2010)

*Spoilers for “Flesh and Stone”*

This episode is a mixed bag for me. I always enjoy when Who puts a sci-fi spin on classic horror characters, and the late Helen McCrory’s guest appearance is worth the price of admission on its own, but anytime Moffat toys with the idea of a Doctor-Amy-Rory love triangle, it tends to get awkward, and this episode is no exception.

After her terrifying near-death experience with the Weeping Angels in the previous episode, Amy decided to seize the day by doing her darndest to jump the Eleventh Doctor’s bones. He was not on board with that, for all kinds of reasons, including the fact that Amy had just admitted to him that she’s getting married in the morning. The Doctor decides the best way to deal with this is to pick up Rory and take him and Amy both on a “wedding present” trip, so they can share in the adventure together. The TARDIS brings them to 16th century Venice, where a mysterious aristocrat named Rosanna runs a school for a select group of girls. The Doctor, Amy, and Rory are enlisted to help a man who worries for his daughter’s safety after she was accepted to the school.

The episode’s take on vampires is a lot of fun. I enjoy the alien explanations it gives for the various bits of vampire mythology: the fangs, the aversion to sunlight, not appearing in mirrors. Also, I adore the Doctor and Amy’s giddy excitement to be facing off against vampires, while Rory is standing here going, “Okay, but dangerous, though?!?” And Rosanna is simply a splendid baddie—intelligent, otherworldly, and elegant. Helen McCrory gives excellent vampire in the role, and I love the scene where she and the Doctor get a measure of one another. My first time watching series 5, I remember being struck by how Matt Smith really made you feel the weight of the Doctor’s years in their interactions.

There’s all kinds of other good stuff here too. I get a kick out of the Doctor crashing Rory’s stag night—in the most Doctor way possible—to take Rory away in the TARDIS. I’m tickled by the Doctor accidentally flashing his library card (with One’s picture on it!) to the vampires. And Rory has a terrific speech where he lays out why he thinks the Doctor is so dangerous. “It's not that you make people take risks, it's that you make them want to impress you,” he says. “You make it so they don't want to let you down.”

However, the climax is pretty goofy, and while the show is capable of doing the Doctor-Amy-Rory stuff well, they can also belabor it way too much. This is from the end of “Flesh and Stone,” but it’s never clear why a near-death experience makes Amy so determined to cheat on her fiancee the night before her wedding. The Doctor is firmly of the opinion that he doesn’t want anything to do with any love triangle business—when Amy inevitably suggests she infiltrates Rosanna’s school, the Doctor suggests he come along and pose as her father, with Amy reminding him, “You look about nine.” But unfortunately, Rory just can’t seem to get that part. To be fair, it’s the night before his wedding and he found out his fiancee was kissing her childhood “imaginary friend,” but by and large, he’s the one making it into a competition with the Doctor, who’s not trying to do any of that. Rory gets squirrelly at the thought of Amy and the Doctor fighting alien vampires together, and there’s a dick-measuring metaphor using flashlights. And personally, I don’t like having dick-measuring metaphors in Doctor Who. 

So boo for that. Still, it’s a pretty enjoyable episode overall, and while the aggravating elements bring it down for me, they’re not enough to spoil it.

Joel Fry: Game of Thrones: Season 4, Episode 6 – “The Laws of Gods and Men” (2014)

*Spoilers up through episode 5*

This is Joel Fry’s only other season 4 appearance—the rest of his episodes are all in season 5. This episode is another good one overall, and we get a proper introduction to Fry’s character instead of just a glimpse.

In need of gold to fund their military campaign, Stannis and Ser Davos travel to Braavos to make their case to the Iron Bank. In the North, Yara leads a mission to rescue Theon from the Boltons. Having now conquered Meereen, Daenerys has decided to stay and rule it, holding court to hear the pleas of her new subjects. In King’s Landing, Tyrion is brought to trial, with Tywin presiding.

The first half of the episode is the same “quick check-in on various plots” structure as episode 3, while the second half is entirely devoted to the King’s Landing stuff, with Tyrion’s trial taking pride of place. Let’s get into the highlights!

• In Braavos, Ser Davos shows why he’s a great Hand for Stannis. In addition to his fierce loyalty, he’s able to get a read on the heads of the Iron Bank after only a short meeting. This allows him to make Stannis’s case in a way that specifically appeals to the Iron Bank and their interests. As far as Hands go, Davos is one of the better ones of the bunch!
• I like Yara’s determination to rescue Theon. The Greyjoy siblings were separated for many years when Theon was a ward of the Starks, and they didn’t exactly have a warm reunion. In light of all that—and how much Theon has suffered under the Boltons—I’m glad to see Yara going to bat for him.
• Before we get to all the trial stuff, I love the whole conversation between Varys and Oberyn in the throne room. We’ve got Varys telling Oberyn, “No one is under obligation to call me ‘lord,’” with Oberyn replying, “And yet everyone does.” We’ve got Oberyn correctly guessing that Varys is from Lys, citing his ear for accents, and when Varys argues, “I’ve lost my accent entirely,” Oberyn says, “I have an ear for that as well.” The entire scene is so good!
• Best of all, though, this is the episode where it’s stated that Varys is asexual! I remember being so surprised and excited by this when I watched it for the first time back in the day. Understandably, “asexual” isn’t a word that exists in Westeros, but Varys’s meaning is clear. I also love that Oberyn is the one on the receiving end of this reveal—ace/bi solidarity forever!
• But again, nearly half of the episode is devoted to Tyrion’s trial. Admittedly, I quibble at all the witnesses being able to repeat Tyrion’s exact words—some of them from years ago! It’s almost like they peeked at the old scripts to refresh their memories!
• Other than that, the trial is excellent. Despite only occasionally resorting to outright lies, it’s a blatant frame job, with Tyrion’s past words and actions repeatedly stripped of any context. No surprise, Tywin is largely unwilling to let Tyrion say anything in his defense.
• Peter Dinklage is so, so good in all of this! There’s the subtler stuff, like his reaction to Tommen declaring, “And if found guilty, may the gods punish the accused,” or the way he lounges in the box while Grand Maester Pycelle is testifying. And then, of course, there’s his magnificent final speech! I especially love, “I wish I was the monster you think I am.”

After conquering the slavers in Astapor and Yunkai during season 3, Dany moved on to Meereen, then learned that those other city-states haven’t flourished under their new liberation: one was taken by a war lord while the masters reasserted control in the other. As such, she decides to stay in Meereen, protecting the city’s newfound freedom while also learning how to rule her subjects. That’s where Hizdahr zo Loraq/Joel Fry comes in.

Although hundreds of supplicants come before Daenerys, Hizdahr is one of the only two we see onscreen. The first, a poor goatherd, bows and scrapes and practically apologizes to Dany for having lost his livelihood at the hands of her dragons. By contrast, Hizdahr’s entrance is announced by a servant, and he looks directly at Dany as he begins to speak. While the goatherd shuffles backward out of Dany’s presence at the end of his audience, Hizdahr backs down the steps of the dais then turns around, straightening up as he strides out of the throne room.

I remember a few facts about Hizdahr’s role on the show but not much about his personality—I don’t think I ever paid close enough attention to him on previous watches for me to get an impression of him. As such, his characterization is a bit new to me. A former Master, Hizdahr is accustomed to his old status but cognizant of his precarious place in Dany’s new world. During his audience with her, he changes tactics more than once, knowing when the time has come to lower his head and get on his knees.

Hizdahr is shrewd. He begins with flowery compliments that don’t impress Dany, then lulls her with talk of his father’s good works before revealing that she’d had him crucified with over 150 of the other Masters. He describes her eye-for-an-eye style executions using words like “cruel” and “crime,” which is bold, considering he’s part of the same class of men who got crucified. At the same time, he sidesteps her rebuttals about the Masters’ own cruelty, keeping the focus on himself as merely “a son who loved his father.” 

It’s a tightrope of a scene, and Fry navigates it well, showing us how Hizdahr is prepared for whatever Dany throws back at him. While Fry’s physicality often comes through in the way his characters fidget or the inventive choices he makes, he uses it here in an entirely different way. All of Hizdahr’s gestures are precise and elegant. Whether he’s expressing his grief, challenging his new queen’s methods of justice, or reorienting himself firmly within her new world order, his body language carefully affirms that.

I have to mention—as with a lot of Daenerys’s storylines, the racial dynamics get weird. Most of the countries Dany has made her way through in Essos are majority people of color, and that means slaves and masters alike are largely played by Black and brown actors. They’re the ones responding to Dany, “Breaker of Chains” and quite possibly the whitest woman. We’ve seen Black and brown slaves treat her like a savior, and here, we have a Black man playing a former slaveowner, kneeling before Dany as he asks her to consider that she may have ignored some of the nuance in this whole slavery issue. Anything involving Dany in Essos is going to have issues like this, while also being just about the only storylines where talented BIPOC actors like Joel Fry (or Jacob Anderson and Nathalie Emmanuel, for example) can appear.

Accent Watch

A light RP.