Kinds of Kindness: A Lyrical Descent into Power and Delusion: Bugonia

What a great way to bring the blog back: with movies—and good movies. The film brings together outstanding performances—Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, and company—so much so that it’s hard to decide who shines the most. The story revolves around three disturbed characters: on one side, we watch illness and immaturity ravage a child’s life until they push him into madness; his cousin, paralyzed by loneliness and sadness, gets carried along and indulges the child’s fantasy; and Emma embodies a tough CEO trapped in a kidnapping situation that erupts into conversations and scenes that are deeply triggering.

The ending, to my mind, opens two readings for the viewer: on the one hand, “we are not alone”; on the other, it shows how certain extreme experiences can shake and torment even the strongest mind. The film leaves many messages reverberating: the way exposure (and “production”) can seem to destroy a life; how illness makes a child vulnerable—with hints of abuse—and how all of that spirals into madness and violence. Those who have seen it (or will) will likely piece these threads together.

At its core, there’s a stark message about humanity and its limited ability to evolve for the better: even when we live through situations that should teach us, we sometimes become more cruel; ethics and morality get lost along the way to individual interests, as happens with the three characters. In the end, another powerful work by Yorgos Lanthimos.

Quietly devastating—and worth it. 4.8/5.

Poster oficial Bugonia