The Philadelphia Film Festival starts this week (get your tickets/badges here), bringing the most exciting new cinema to the City of Brotherly Love (as well as a few rep screenings to boot). This year’s lineup is stacked with unmissable treats, many of which can be seen at the newly renovated Film Center.
Since I’m awesome and you’re awesome, I’ll be here at ScullyVision giving you my thoughts on many of the films I attend at the fest, until eventually my brain melts into a soup and I decide that I hate movies and never want to watch another one ever again for as long as I live. It happens every year and I cannot help myself. I will not stop. This is my blessing. This is my curse.
Luckily for you and for my currently still-solid brain, I’ve gotten a head start on a few of the films you’ll have a chance to see this week, and both of them are bangers.
Bugonia (dir. Yorgos Lanthimos)
The latest fruit of the mutual muse relationship of Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone comes in the form of Bugonia, a loose remake of the South Korean dark comedy Save The Green Planet! Far be it from me to suggest that you avoid seeing the original film before seeing a remake, but in this case I feel comfortable making the recommendation. While the two films are different enough tonally and stylistically to merit the remake’s existence, there are a few plot developments that function best as surprises. And to be fair, if the original film were playing PFF, I’d suggest holding off on the remake in order to similarly preserve the experience.
But the original film not playing PFF, so here we are.
This dark, edgy tale follows Teddy (Jesse Plemons) and Don (Aidan Delbis, in his debut), two conspiracy-obsessed brothers who kidnap Michelle (Emma Stone), a pharmaceutical executive who they believe is secretly an alien. Their plan is as detailed as it is hapless, but what they fail to consider is that an important, successful woman like Michelle might prove a savvier captive than either man has the IQ to reckon with.
The original film is ecology-focused in its thematic framework, whereas Lanthimos’ version seems to be more about the limits of communication between parties who exist in completely different realities. When Michelle tries to reason with her captors, it’s hard not to think about the futility of arguing politics with highly propagandized individuals (I’m looking at you, Newsmax). And as it becomes clear that Teddy is taking advantage of his cognitively divergent brother, one can’t help but to transpose their dynamic onto infinite real world scenarios where the path of least resistance leads to the suffering of marginalized individuals. The interstitials which show imagery of an increasingly flattened Earth remove any thematic subtlety — and let’s face it, subtlety is not in the Lanthimos playbook.
Even so, Bugonia doesn’t feel as thematically rich as Poor Things or even Kinds of Kindness, and it’s nowhere near as wantonly abrasive as Ari Aster!s Eddington, which works with similar ideas and weaponizes discomfort in service of its message. As such, there are stretches where the film feels like it’s already made its point and doesn’t know where to go. It resultingly becomes more valuable from a plot angle rather than a story one.
It’s never boring, however, and it’s also a hell of a showcase for all three of its leads. Plemons is a man possessed, downright terrifying in his portrayal of a truly lost young man. Stone continues trading her Hollywood clout for the opportunity to take juicy roles in weird projects, and I hope she never stops. The performance of the film, however, goes to Delbis, an actor on the autism spectrum who comes from The Miracle Project, a fully-inclusive theater/film/arts program. His performance is a sensitive one, and one that doesn’t lean on stereotypes. His is a fully-realized character, and serves as the emotional core of a somewhat cold film.
While this is far from my favorite Lanthimos offering, it is 100% grade A sicko shit, which, as a card-carrying sicko, is my favorite thing.
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (dir. Mary Bronstein)
While not a horror movie, it’s not not a horror movie. I say this because I am terrified of having children, and I have nothing but the utmost respect for the parents of the world who do their darnedest to make sure the lives of their Littles are full of love, support, and most importantly … food.
Seriously, food is the entry level requirement for parenthood, and it’s also the most nuanced. Kids are finicky eaters and healthy food doesn’t always taste good. What I mean to say is that I watch my sister raise her children in a state of perpetual awe. I don’t know how she does it at all, let alone at such a high degree. I digress.
Rose Byrne, in the performance that will probably net her an Oscar, plays Linda, a therapist dealing with an onslaught of misfortune, the most prominent of which comes in the form of a daughter who will not eat due to a mysterious illness. She’s currently on a feeding tube, and it’s up to Linda to help her gain enough weight to merit her continued inclusion in a specialty educational program. Add to that an absentee husband, a missing patient, and a hole in her ceiling so large that she must live in a seedy motel while the repairmen take their sweet time, and Linda is about to break.
It’s parenthood as psychological horror, and it’s one of the most difficult movies I’ve seen in quite some time. I highly recommend it, and no, I will not watch it with you. I’ve had my fill of stressors for the week.
Bronstein, directing from her own script, makes a bold choice to obscure the daughter’s face for the bulk of the film, keeping the focus on Linda, and drawing tension from the dichotomy between two common refrains: “you need to take care of yourself first” and “when you become a parent you put yourself second.” While the story is straightforward and deliciously frank, Bronstein touches things up with bits of surrealism which may or may not be explained by Linda’s attempts at therapeutic breathing exercises.
Supporting performances from Danielle Macdonald and A$AP Rocky make a strong case for both actors to receive more leading roles, and a surprising dramatic turn from Conan O’Brien is like one hundred Christmases. He’s tremendous here, and as much as I adore the guy, I didn’t think he had it in him. I was sure he’d never be able to “turn it off.” I’m elated to be dead wrong.
This isn’t to say that the film isn’t funny. It’s very funny. But in a way that hurts. The film’s funniest moment is also its darkest. So much so that it even betrays the film’s overall tone — but I don’t think even the most coldhearted editor could cut it.
