Bugonia, Director Yorgos Lanthimos and screenwriter Will Tracy have made a provocative, audacious and poetic, but heavy-handed blend of satire, dark comedy, horror, thriller and drama. Yes, the plot goes bonkers pretty much right away once Teddy and Don kidnap Michelle. Lanthimos and Tracy don't waste any time with expository scenes. Who are Teddy and Don? What's their true motive for kidnapping Michelle? Is she really an alien or are Teddy and Don simply crazy. Bugonia remains suspenseful, for the most part, until it over-explains everything and leaves little to interpretation, i.e. through flashbacks to Teddy's ill mother, Sandy (Alicia Silverstone). His motive becomes clear and it also becomes crystal clear whether or not Michelle is an alien, so what's left for the audience to figure out?
The third act goes somewhat off the rails while trying too hard to escalate the absurdity and to bombard the audience with overt symbolism. That said, Jesse Plemons and Emma Stone shine in lively performances. Just as expected from a Yorgos Lanthomos movie, the cinematography and production designs provide plenty of visual style that becomes part of the film's substance. At 1 hour and 58 minutes, Bugonia opens in select theaters via Focus Features before expanding nationwide on October 31st, 2025.
Number of times I checked my watch: 2
Singer/songwriter Bruce Springstein (Jeremy Allen White) makes the album "Nebraska" while dealing with his childhood trauma and romancing Faye (Odessa Young), a single mother, in Springstein: Deliver Me From Nowhere. The screenplay by writer/director Scott Cooper is shallow, by-the-numbers, bland and sugar-coated, much like last year's A Complete Unknown. However, the performances by the ensemble cast, namely Jeremy Allen White, Odessa Young, Jeremy Strong, Paul Walter Hauser and Stephen Graham are terrific enough to invigorate the film. The flashback scenes to Springstein's childhood are redundant, though, and only serve as exposition. Cooper's screenplay ultimately fails to design enough of a window into Bruce Springstein's heart, mind and soul. He's a stranger to the audience at the beginning and remains a stranger to them until the very end. It's also hard to grasp how he's truly grown and changed throughout the course of the film. His few epiphanies don't feel contrived.
Not surprisingly, the scenes with Springstein's music are the ones that are exhilarating on a palpable level. If only the same could be said about the scenes without his music which, sadly, fail to resonate on an emotional level like the recent, underseen music biopic Stelios manages to accomplish with flying colors. At 1 hour and 59 minutes, Springstein: Deliver Me From Nowhere opens nationwide via 20th Century Studios.
Number of times I checked my watch: 3
