Well, I would like to tell you that I watched more than two movies this weekend. I had ambitions to watch more than two. In fact, I was honestly aiming for six. I’ll wait for your laughs to die down. My old lady body decided to fall asleep on the couch twice when I intended on starting a movie. Never even made it to the opening credits. So anyway, I did make it to the theater to see two new ones.
Bugonia – After the torture that was sitting through Poor Things, I hesitated and eventually never watched Yorgos Lanthimos’ next film, Kinds of Kindness. But apparently enough time has passed that I was intrigued to see his latest, Bugonia. With the stars of Kinds of Kindness, Jesse Plemmons and Emma Stone play two completely different characters. The former is a conspiracy theorist, Teddy, operating at peak spiral. He’s convinced that the reason his whole family is gone besides his cousin, Don, because of the Andromadons, an alien spieces intent on destroying earth. That alien is none other than phamaceutical CEO, Michelle Fuller. She is what you think of when you think of corporate overlords. But she’s put to the test when she’s kidnapped by Teddy and Don and has to try and convince them she’s not a bad alien. At worst, she’s just a bad person. Though this film was absurd, on purpose, in so many ways, there were sadly lots of parallels to real life. Especially real life in America right now. Is it my favorite Yorgos film? I don’t think so, but I did really enjoy it, and it makes me want to go back and actually watch Kinds of Kindness – a win!
Die My Love – This film has been floating around for quite some time, but even with big names like Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson attached, this dramatic thriller didn’t get near the hype I was expecting it to. Of course, the high level synopsis of a new mother who slowly descends into madness made me immediately think of Tully, a film tackling a similar subject matter back in 2018, but this film has got some source material. And it also has the darkly twisted Lynn Ramsey at the helm as director. She brought my beloved We Need to Talk About Kevin to the screen, also focusing on postpartum depression and what it can do to a woman, but that one took a darker turn in the end. Though this film did feel way too long, it did have me intrigued about getting my hands on the novel of the same name (different punctuation), and it also had me heading to Reddit for some theories. And spoiler! One I could totally wrap my head around was the fact that the baby in this was actually miscarried and all of the things she’s experiencing are a hallucination caused by her postpartum. It definitely jived with some moments I questioned. I have a hard time thinking this movie would appeal to a wide audience at all, but it’s my kind of weird.