Emma Stone’s highly anticipated new film Bugonia has finally premiered, and it has quickly become a hot topic in awards season discussions. This marks her fourth collaboration with director Yorgos Lanthimos and her third in just as many years.
Bugonia achieved the largest opening weekend for a Yorgos Lanthimos film, demonstrating that both audiences and critics are thoroughly enjoying the movie. As a film that champions female perspectives, Bugonia offers viewers what Kinds of Kindness lacks, which is why the audience prefers Bugonia significantly more.
While both movies share a dark sense of humor, only Kinds of Kindness was co-written by it’s director, whereas Bugonia was penned by Will Tracy, inspired by Save the Green Planet!
Emma Stone’s Character In Kinds of Kindness Serve As Emotional Punching Bags
Kinds of Kindness is a collection of three chapters linked by their overarching themes. Each chapter delves into the violent, frightening, and morally corrupt depths that humanity reaches when it gives in to cynicism. The film’s absence of joy is disheartening, leaving you emotionally drained by the conclusion of the first chapter, which makes the subsequent two feel like a chore.
In the initial chapter, Emma Stone’s role is quite limited, yet she takes on a supporting character position in the second chapter, ultimately becoming the protagonist in the third. In chapter two, titled “R.M.F Is Flying”, she portrays Liz, a marine biologist who mysteriously reappears after vanishing during an expedition.
Upon her return, she is noticeably changed, to the extent that even her shoes no longer fit. Her spouse, Daniel (Jesse Plemons), grows more unstable and commands her to harm herself for his pleasure, even going so far as to consume her finger at one moment, and ultimately her liver, leading to her demise.
There are also implications that he is to blame for having assaulted her and triggering her miscarriage. In the third chapter, titled “R.M.F. Eats A Sandwich”, Emma Stone portrays a cult member named Emily. Emily and her husband are part of a cult that emphasizes intimate purity and loyalty.
Following a traumatic incident where her estranged husband drugs her after inviting her to see their estranged daughter, she is unjustly expelled from the cult. Her desperate effort to regain her place within the cult ends in a brutal failure at the conclusion of Kinds of Kindness.
Kinds of Kindness Lack A Suitable Emotional Outlet
The primary issue with Kinds of Kindness is that it creates emotional tension without offering any resolution for the audience. The ending is notably bleak and disheartening.
In the second and third chapters, Emma Stone’s characters endure relentless suffering without any chance for escape or retribution, leaving you cheering for her in vain, ultimately frustrated by the absence of fulfillment that the narratives provide.
It deeply troubles us to witness her endure the aftermath of being raped. In the film, Emily is portrayed as a victim, and it is infuriating to see her unintentionally take the life of the sole individual who could assist her in reuniting with the cult.
This frustration is compounded by the painful realization that her answer lies in attempting to return to the very cult that condemned her for her assault.
Bugonia Provides Emma Stone’s Character With A Fulfilling Conclusion
In Bugonia, Emma Stone portrays Michelle Fuller, a corporate CEO who is abducted by two men, Teddy (Jesse Plemons) and Don (Aidan Delbis). Teddy believes she is an alien. They shave her head, confine her in their basement, and Teddy subjects her to torture.
Despite her denials, the conclusion of Bugonia, which is more predictable than surprising, ultimately validates his belief. Nevertheless, the film does not portray him in a positive light. Although he may have accurately guessed that she was an alien, he reached that conclusion only after inflicting pain and taking the lives of numerous others in search of evidence and information regarding the Andromedans.
Bugonia makes it clear that he is a malevolent individual, regardless of his eventual correctness. Throughout the duration of Bugonia, you find yourself supporting Emma Stone’s character. However, Bugonia addresses the critical weakness found in Kinds of Kindness – Emma Stone’s character, Michelle Fuller, ultimately has the last laugh.
She cleverly exploits Teddy’s conviction to gain her freedom, only to turn around and kill him. The pent-up resentment you feel towards Teddy culminates in a gratifying climax in Bugonia.
The Conclusion of Bugonia Is Both Joyful & Well-Earned
As Lanthimos, Stone, and Plemons have articulated, the conclusion of Bugonia is not a sorrowful one, even with the complete destruction of humanity at Michelle’s hands. After she rises to the mothership and eliminates every human on Earth, there remains a feeling of satisfaction that she has freed herself from Teddy’s grasp and made the only logical choice following her harrowing ordeal.
In the climax, Michelle explains to Teddy that the Andromedans graciously repopulated Earth with species similar to themselves after inadvertently causing the extinction of the dinosaurs.
Yet, Teddy’s actions reflect the deep-seated cynicism of humanity. Rather than opting for more open-minded approaches, he resorts to torturing her, ultimately leading humanity towards it’s own extinction, which paradoxically feels like a happy ending.