Welcome: Kidnapped corporate exec (Emma Stone) converses with her captors (Aidan Delbis & Jesse Plemons) in ‘Bugonia’.
BUGONIA **** (118 minutes) MA
In a wondrous, thoroughly engrossing example of off-the-wall cinema, two complete and utter nutters whose lives are framed by a set of whacky, self-reinforcing conspiracy theories (Jesse Plemons and Aidan Delbis) kidnap a corporate executive (Emma Stone) with the overpowering belief that she is an alien queen intent on helping her fellow aliens take over Earth.
Their mission: save Earth using whatever means necessary, including shock treatment.
Based on Jang Joon-hwan’s 2003 South Korean film Save the Green Planet, outer-rim resident Yorgos Lanthimos (The Favourite; Poor Things) delivers a bleakly funny, intriguing, rather large slice of catnip cake to those foyer dwellers who hunger for something fresh and unusual in a cinematic firmament defined by sameness and repetition.
As the abductee, Stone again proves, after her Oscar-nabbing turn in Poor Things, what a magnetic presence she can be as we watch her desperate executive, restrained n a dingy basement, talk and think her way through her ordeal. It’s an astonishing performance. She even gets her head shaved on screen. Talk about committing to the part.
Looking like he’s lost about half his heft, Jesse Plemons is similarly convincing as the gaunt, low-IQ conspiracy theorist who, with his impressionable cousin, tries to persuade their captive to follow their directives.
And they’re quite nice about it, wearing suits when they address her and politely deflecting her invective. Any use of torture is deemed a necessary evil to save humankind. You even start to like them a little.
Loopy as the premise is, what really seals the deal with a gold elephant stamp is a killer final reel so off-the-rails it rouses the strong desire to see it again.
What a trip. BYO tin-foil hats.
GOOD FORTUNE ***1/2 (98 minutes) M
The ever-reliable comedy premise of the old switcheroo gets a really good going over in Good Fortune, a wily Trading Places-type fable from debut writer/director Aziz Ansari, best-known till now as Tom, the entrepreneurial dimwit from Parks and Recreation.
Ansari plays Arj, a financially hogtied soul circling the drain of an unforgiving gig economy where he is continually being screwed over when it comes to being paid for menial tasks, such as waiting in line for somebody’s donuts.
He comes to the attention of Gabriel (Keanu Reeves), a lower-tier guardian angel with tiny wings in charge of saving people who text while driving.
Eager to advance himself in the angel hierarchy, and in a lovely comic conceit, he exceeds his authority by interfering in Arj’s life by switching his meagre station with that of rich guy Jeff (Seth Rogen), whose stress-free lifestyle of indulgence and partying Arj deeply envies.
When Gabriel’s noble intention of making Arj appreciate the value of his real life falls a little short, a cleverly interlaced series of comic complications ensue questioning the age-old idiom that money can’t buy happiness.
With a warm and winning performance from Reeves, reminding us how funny he can be away from all the John Wick mayhem, the film shapes up nicely as a positive, laugh-peppered ditty about coping in hard times and the value of self-worth, an issue Arj has issues with.
All up, a terrific, well-honed comedy with a full-blooded narrative trek that comes full circle in a very satisfying manner.