With just one change, Bugonia fixes controversial Emma Stone 2024 film from the same director
Emma Stone’s long-awaited new film Bugonia is finally out, and it’s already become the center of awards season conversations. This is the fourth time she has worked with director Yorgos Lanthimos and the third time in as many years. Bugonia had the biggest release weekend for a Yorgos Lanthimos film, proving that audiences and critics are enjoying the film.
As is often the case with Lanthimos, Bugonia has already won over critics, earning an 86% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. This is a particularly welcome change after Stone and Lanthimos’ previous film, Kinds of Kindnesswhich divided audiences, even if it found some success on streaming. Bugonia received more universal love from moviegoers, and rightfully so.
As the film “Good For Her”, Bugonia gives viewers the one thing Types of Kindness fails to dowhich explains why the same audience likes Bugonia much more. Both films have a twisted sense of humor, but only Kinds of Kindness was co-written by the director, unlike Bugoniawritten by Will Tracy, based on Let’s save the green planet!
Emma Stone’s Characters in Kinds of Kind Are Punching Bags
Kinds of Kindness is an anthology of three chapters linked by their themes. They all explore the violent, terrifying, and depraved depths to which humanity descends when it succumbs to cynicism. The film’s lack of joy is disappointing, as you are emotionally exhausted by the end of the first chapter, making the next two feel like a slog.
Emma Stone has only a minor role in the first chapter, but she is a supporting character in the second and the protagonist of the third. In chapter two, “RMF flies”she plays Liz, a marine biologist who inexplicably returns after disappearing during an expedition. She’s different from when she left and even her shoes don’t fit her.
Her husband, Daniel (Jesse Plemons), becomes increasingly erratic and orders her to mutilate herself for his pleasure, eating her finger at one point and then eventually her liver, causing her death. It is also suggested that he is responsible for beating her and causing her miscarriage. In the third chapter, “RMF eats a sandwich”Emma Stone plays a cultist named Emily.
Emily and her husband belong to a cult based on sexual purity and loyalty. After being raped by her ex-husband, who drugs her after inviting her to spend time with his ex-daughter, she is unjustly expelled from the cult. His desperate attempt to join the cult suddenly fails at the end of Kinds of Kindness.
Kindness Types Lack Appropriate Emotional Release
The biggest flaw of Kinds of Kindness is that it creates emotional frustration without giving viewers any release. The conclusion is decidedly cynical and depressing. Emma Stone’s characters in the second and third chapters suffer endlessly without being able to escape or take revenge, and you root for her in vain, ultimately annoyed by the lack of satisfaction the stories give you.
We see her suffer the consequences of being raped, and that doesn’t sit well with me. Emily is a victim in the film, and seeing her accidentally kill the only person who could help her join the cult is aggravating. It only got worse when he realized his solution was trying to return to the same cult that vilified her for being raped.
Bugonia Gives Emma Stone’s Character a Satisfying Ending
In BugoniaEmma Stone plays Michelle Fuller, CEO of a company, who is kidnapped by two men, Teddy (Jesse Plemons) and Don (Aidan Delbis), because the former thinks she is an alien. They shave her head, imprison her in their basement, and Teddy tortures her. She denies his claims, but BugoniaThe ending, more obvious than shocking, confirms that he was right.
However, the film is not favorable to him. He may have successfully predicted that she was an alien, but he only came to this conclusion after torturing and killing many other people to obtain evidence and information about the Andromedans. Bugonia ensures that we know he’s a bad person, even if he’s right. You support Emma Stone’s character throughout BugoniaExecution time.
But here’s how Bugonia improves Kinds of KindnessThe fatal flaw of – Emma Stone’s Michelle Fuller has the last word in the film. She ultimately uses Teddy’s conviction to manipulate him into freeing her, then uses her freedom to kill him. All the resentment towards Teddy that you feel growing inside you is rewarded in BugoniaIt’s a satisfying climax.
The ending of Bugonia seems happy and deserved
As Lanthimos, Stone, and Plemons explained, BugoniaThe ending is not sad despite the annihilation of all human life at the hands of Michelle. After she gets on the mothership and kills every human being on Earth, you still feel a sense of contentment that she escaped Teddy’s clutches and made the only natural decision she could after her traumatic experience.
As Michelle tells Teddy during the climax, the Andromedans had been kind enough to repopulate the Earth with species that look like them after accidentally causing the extinction of the dinosaurs. However, Teddy’s behavior is symptomatic of humanity’s cynicism. He chooses not to engage in a more open-minded way instead of torturing her, and deserves the extinction of humanity in what appears to be a happy ending.
Bugonia
8/10
- Release date
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October 23, 2025
