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.

Other Doctor Lives: The Roses (2025, R)

Woohoo, new Ncuti Gatwa project! Since he hasn’t been in too much yet and I covered all his readily-available pre-Who work prior to his debut as Fifteen, it’s exciting to see him pop up in something new, even when he doesn’t have a very big role. The main cast of this movie had caught my eye, but finding out that Gatwa was in it clinched my decision to see it in the theater.

Shakeups in their respective careers and positions within their marriage put a major strain on Theo and Ivy’s relationship. He takes a massive career hit right as her star is on the rise, and Theo doesn’t take nearly as well as he’d like to their initial plan to have Ivy temporarily become the breadwinner while he stays home with the kids. Varying feelings of resentment, inadequacy, and isolation begin to creep in—for both of them—and it’s hard to say if their marriage is hurtling towards divorce or if there’s anything worth saving.

I haven’t seen The War of the Roses from the ‘80s (or read the book it’s based on,) so I came into this film fairly fresh. It’s a dark comedy that gets pretty bitter and vicious at times. I’ve watched my share of divorce stories, ranging from Marriage Story to Everything Will Be Fine, but I wasn’t prepared for how utterly mean this movie is in places.

That can certainly make it hard to watch, but despite the nastiness, I still found the film rather compelling. For me, the most interesting part is that Theo and Ivy do still love each other. We see it when Ivy’s “ten things I like about you” exercise in therapy devolves into insults and they both burst out laughing at the end of her list. We see it when Ivy blinks back tears in the bathroom as she urges herself to apologize for something hurtful she drunkenly spouted off the night before. We see it when Theo becomes increasingly obsessed with the “dream house” he’s designing for them, needing every detail to be perfect so that it’s worthy of Ivy. Their problem is that they can’t show each other their most vulnerable parts. Ivy doesn’t apologize, not really, and Theo can’t convey that the house is a tribute to anything other than his own ego. It’s like the two of them are trapped on a spiteful merry-go-round, and although neither is having a good time, they don’t have the wherewithal or the courage to jump off.

Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman are very effective in the lead roles. That does mean they’re major factors in how uncomfortable the film can get. Both of them are absolutely brutal when the script calls for it, and there’s more than one “train crash” moment where it’s clear that Theo and/or Ivy is regretting their words even as they’re saying them, but they just can’t stop themselves. But it also means that they’re also responsible for the movie’s more rootable emotions, those moments where Ivy and Theo are able to connect and show one another that the love hasn’t died completely. 

Andy Samberg does a nice, understated job as Theo and Ivy’s friend Barry, who’s deeply depressed and unhappy in his marriage but resolutely faking it ‘til he makes it. And I like Kate McKinnon, but she feels somewhat out of place as Barry’s wife Amy. Even though most of her line deliveries are pretty deadpan, her scenes still wind up feeling over-the-top in a way that doesn’t really mesh with the rest of the film. (Don’t get me wrong—there’s a lot in this movie that feels exaggerated, but the Amy parts feel exaggerated in a different way, one that just doesn’t fit as well.) Allison Janney also makes a brief but memorable appearance as a cutthroat divorce lawyer.

Ncuti Gatwa plays Jeffrey, the waiter at Ivy’s restaurant. I’m reminded a little of his role in Barbie, to be honest. That may seem like a weird comparison, because the two films are so wildly different. But in both, Gatwa plays a small supporting part where he mostly gives some nice reaction shots, does a questionable American accent, and wears Outfits (although Barbie obviously has The Roses beat on the Outfits! front.)

Jeffrey has slightly more to do than Gatwa’s Ken does. When the restaurant starts doing well, he compares himself to a stripper because he’s drowning in tips, and he gives Ivy relationship advice that he insists isn’t at all cheapened by the fact that most of his relationships are of the hookup variety. More often than not, though, he exists to set up other characters’ punchlines, mainly Ivy’s. 

At any rate, kudos to Gatwa for getting to work with Colman (and, more briefly, Cumberbatch, Samberg, and McKinnon.) By and large, he acquits himself well, adding a bit of spark to a paper-thin character.

Accent Watch

Ostensibly American (which I know because there’s a scene where all the American characters discuss Theo and Ivy’s British accents,) but those ‘R’s sound decidedly Scottish to me!

Recommend?

In General – A tentative maybe. I’m still trying to decide what I think about it. The performances are very good, and if you’re prepared for the grimness, it might warrant a watch.

Ncuti Gatwa – Not necessarily. As with Barbie, he’s an added bonus if you’re otherwise interested in seeing the film, but his role is just too minor to be worth it purely for him.

Warnings

Language (including the C-word,) sexual content, violence, gross-out humor, drinking/smoking/drug use, and strong thematic elements (including references to suicide.)

Heathers: The Musical (2022)

Not the original 1988 film, which I haven’t actually seen. No, this is a performance of the stage show that was filmed live for Roku. And while I also haven’t seen the musical onstage, I’ve listened to the cast recording plenty of times, so it was fun to see the numbers performed within the context of the whole show.

Like a lot of people navigating the apocalyptic wasteland of high school, Veronica Sawyer envies the Heathers, a trio of popular girls who rule the school and never have to worry about being harassed or laughed at. A lucky turn of events places her inside the clique, but Veronica learns that being a Heather comes with its own challenges, namely being forever under the thumb of “mythic bitch” Heather Chandler. When Veronica takes up with a troubled loner named J.D., they start to push back against the Heathers, and in the process, they upend the whole school.

I’m not getting too much into the plot details—the original Heathers may be 35 years old, but if I haven’t seen it, I’m sure others haven’t either, so I’ll avoid spoilers. Suffice it to say, the film this show is based on was Mean Girls before Mean Girls existed, with an even bigger bite and a more menacing edge. The musical brings a bit of camp to some of the more disturbing plot points, but it also allows things to get genuinely messed up, and the characters react as such.

My first exposure to Heathers in any format was when Riverdale did it as their musical episode in season 3. I liked what I heard of the songs there, and when I looked up the show online, I was surprised to discover the score was written by Laurence O’Keefe. If you haven’t heard the cast recording for Bat Boy, you’re absolutely missing out. For years, that was the only show of his that I’d heard about, so I jumped at the chance to listen to more of Heathers. The score is super catchy and endlessly playable. I especially love the opening number “Beautiful,” the wickedly playful Heathers anthem “Candy Store,” the twisted love song “Our Love is God,” and the wistful ballad “Seventeen.”

Like I said, it was fun to watch a live recording of the show. While the cast recording gave me a good sense of the story, I appreciated the chance to fill in the last of the gaps and see everything play out. Maddison Firth, Vivian Panka, and Teleri Hughes are bitchy and color coordinated as Heathers Chandler, Duke, and McNamara respectively, and they always bring it when they’re onstage. Liam Doyle and Rory Phelan do well as Kurt and Ram, two jocks who are equal parts cruel and dumb. Simon Gordon makes for an unnerving J.D., while Mhairi Angus is sweet as Veronica’s best friend Martha. Unfortunately, Ailsa Davidson is kind of a weak link for me as Veronica. I never felt like she rose above “all right,” and she lacks an edge that I pictured Veronica having. This makes the recording not as good as it could’ve been, but I still found it worth watching.

Warnings

Violence (including attempted rape,) sexual content, language (including sexist, homophobic, and ableist slurs,) drinking/drug use, and strong thematic elements (including suicide.)