Sinners and One Battle After Another are the two best movies this year, but right up there with them is Bugonia. If we weren’t just two years removed from Poor Things this newest collaboration between director Yorgos Lanthimos and actor Emma Stone might be getting the consideration it deserves. I’ve tried to find out why the film has come and gone rather quietly when everyone I know who has seen the film loves it. I often hear that people have grown tired of the pairing, much like Tim Burton always casting Johnny Depp, but Stone was also in Eddington and The Curse. Ryan Coogler has yet to make a feature without Michael B. Jordan and I don’t think any of us want to see that duo take a break. Jordan is always at his best with Coogler and he might be about to win Best Actor. My pick for Best Leading Male Performance, however, would be Jesse Plemons in Bugonia.
Watching Plemons and Stone acting in scenes together is a heavyweight boxing match. Both can do no wrong right now and they challenge each other with the madness and the mystery at the heart of this story. Lanthimos’s job is to keep it interesting since much of the film are these conversations where the actors remain static. On a first viewing, Plemons character is absurdly funny undercut with sadness. On a rewatch, it’s more sad with an undercurrent of dark humor. This may be coming out in the aftermath of Poor Things and The Favourite, but it’s the best of the three.
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