Bugonia (2025)

This movie is bizarre and in the end, unexpected. It is a casually black comedy in the vein of the Scandanavians. The driving forces are a paranoid beekeeper and a stereotypically amoral biomedical CEO. The apiarist, a sweaty, dirty, and smutty Teddy (Jesse Plemons), teams with his impressionable cousin Donny (Aidan Delbis) to kidnap Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone), believing she’s an alien from the Andromeda species intent on destroying humanity. Their theory comes from conspiracy podcasts, crackpot online sources, and Teddy’s own experimentation. The pair’s plan will require them, in the words of Teddy, to cleanse themselves of their “psychic compulsions.” The success of the film requires the audience to make a similar suspension of belief. I did not love this, and I am also pretty sure I didn't quite get it, and so far it is in last place for me in the Best Film category. I even liked F1 a lot more than this, and I am no Formula One racing fan. It is an unusual movie in a year where there are quite a few unusual movies contending for awards, and Emma Stone is incredible, as per usual.