Always Good Movies

Direction: Yorgos Lanthimos
Country: USA

Bugonia, a delirious sci-fi thriller by Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos (Dogtooth, 2009; The Favourite, 2018; Poor Things, 2023), is propelled by violence, dark humor, paranoia, and outlandish situations. The film, a remake of Jang Joon-hwan’s South Korean hit Save the Green Planet! (2003), stars Lanthimos’s muse Emma Stone, who maneuvers through different dramatic registers with unflinching force; Jesse Plemons, delivering a convincing bravura performance; and first-timer Aidan Delbis, a welcome surprise. Will Tracy (The Menu, 2022) wrote the script, and Ari Aster (Hereditary, 2018) co-produced alongside Stone, Lanthimos, and others.

Cousins Teddy (Plemons), an enraged, manic conspiracy theorist, and the submissive Don (Delbis), who behaves like an innocent child, kidnap Michelle Fuller (Stone), a powerful pharmaceutical CEO they believe to be an Andromedan on a special mission to Earth. Their goal is to force a meeting with her alien emperor, negotiating the withdrawal of her species in order to save the planet. The choice is not arbitrary: Teddy and Michelle share a charged history.

The film confronts a postmodern society in decline, voicing anxieties about human extinction and Earth’s urgent need for care and healing. While its message is clear, the narrative is provocatively mounted, with Lanthimos once again subverting norms—this time through a mix of cynicism, absurdism, eccentric sci-fi, and a wacky, dystopian doomsday theory. The ferocity of his direction is striking, and the story grows more intriguing and disconcerting as it progresses, carrying a kind of grip sorely missing from many recent entries in the genre.

Bugonia is a wild, offbeat eco-tale built with boundless imagination, sprinting toward a punishing finale that dismantles a macabre farce and plunges into perpetual tragedy. Though it sometimes feels calculated, it is also finely crafted, hallucinatory, and immensely entertaining. A galvanizing cinematic experience with a radical edge—one that, whether you love it or hate it, won’t be easy to forget.

Direction: Alex Garland
Country: USA

In Alex Garland’s latest film, Civil War, a tale of courage unfolds against the backdrop of a dystopian landscape ravaged by chaos. Led by renowned war photojournalist Lee Smith (Kirsten Dunst), a small group of journalists, including Reuters reporter Joel (Wagner Moura), embarks on a perilous journey across a fractured country to interview the authoritarian US President in Washington, D.C., before the city falls to rebel forces. Accompanying Lee and Joel are veteran NY Times journalist Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson), considered too old for the mission, and aspiring photojournalist Jessie Cullen (Cailee Spaeny), who flagrantly tags along.

The tense narrative predominantly draws from violence and human cruelty, yet it doesn't forsake humor, extracting it from unexpected situations. Little is explained about the motivations of the factions involved in the conflict, but there’s a stark warning about the consequences of extremism instead. While critical of war obsession and racism, the film emphasizes the neutrality of the journalists as they navigate the chaos with determination and addictive voyeurism.

Departing from his previous sci-fi works like Ex Machina (2014) and Annihilation (2018), Garland injects furious nihilism in his staggeringly realistic depiction of a near-future setting that, as it should, leaves audiences feeling exhausted and wrung-out. Flawless performances, including a notable appearance by Jesse Plemons as an ultranationalist militant, combined with a timely soundtrack featuring songs by Suicide and De La Soul, and a powerful score by Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow, contribute to the film's impact. Civil War is a stone-cold stunner that captivates from start to finish.