With a shaved head, expert line deliveries and the assembly of another all-time memorable character, Emma Stone continues driving this golden age of cinema. She might just be our modern-day Katharine Hepburn.<\/p>\n
Greek auteur Yorgos Lanthimos, Oscar-nominated director of \u201cPoor Things\u201d and \u201cThe Favourite,\u201d has fully stepped into his Alfred Hitchcock era with \u201cBugonia,\u201d which represents a bold new realm for the filmmaker. At the Telluride Film Festival, executive director Julie Huntsinger introduced Jesse Plemons as \u201cJesse F***ing Plemons,\u201d and the actor lived up to the billing in every way.<\/p>\n
More from Variety<\/strong><\/p>\n After debuting at the Venice Film Festival, Lanthimos\u2019 wildly audacious \u201cBugonia\u201d unveiled itself to audiences at the Werner Herzog Theatre. The dark comedy presents the best kind of problem for distributor Focus Features for this Oscar season: how to shepherd two powerhouse contenders (the other being \u201cHamnet\u201d) through the long, unpredictable marathon of awards campaigning and determine which narrative will resonate most with the Academy.<\/p>\n Adapted from Jang Joon-hwan\u2019s 2003 South Korean cult classic \u201cSave the Green Planet!,\u201d the film follows two conspiracy-obsessed men \u2014 played by Plemons and newcomer Aidan Delbis \u2014 who kidnap a high-powered CEO (Stone), convinced she\u2019s an alien bent on destroying Earth.<\/p>\n Plemons, already an Oscar nominee for Jane Campion\u2019s \u201cThe Power of the Dog\u201d (2021), goes for broke in what may be his most audacious and riveting work yet. A best actor nomination feels not only possible but inevitable. It\u2019s hard to pinpoint Oscar winners in history who embody this type of role, but the closest comparison seems a mixture of Anthony Hopkins (\u201cThe Silence of the Lambs\u201d) and Geoffrey Rush (\u201cShine\u201d).<\/p>\n Stone, a two-time Oscar winner for \u201cLa La Land\u201d (2016) and \u201cPoor Things\u201d (2023), shows an almost frightening fearlessness in her craft. At 36, the actor-producer is still building what could become one of Hollywood\u2019s most decorated careers. Like Hepburn, who won four Academy Awards over a lifetime of iconic performances, Stone seems poised to keep redefining what a leading lady can be.<\/p>\n Stone has already made history as one of two women nominated for acting and producing in the same year (\u201cPoor Things\u201d). The other was Frances McDormand for \u201cNomadland\u201d (2020), who won both actress and best picture \u2014 her third and fourth Oscars. McDormand\u2019s other two Oscars came for acting in \u201cFargo\u201d (1996) and \u201cThree Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri\u201d (2017).<\/p>\n Stone\u2019s r\u00e9sum\u00e9 already reads like the arc of an entire generation. From the sharp comic timing of \u201cEasy A\u201d to the aching vulnerability in \u201cThe Favourite,\u201d and from her razor-edge balancing act in \u201cBirdman\u201d to the surrealist bravado of \u201cPoor Things,\u201d Stone has never repeated herself. Each performance arrives with a sense of reinvention \u2014 not unlike Hepburn, whose leap from screwball comedies in the 1930s to searing dramas in the 1960s charted an artistic evolution rarely equaled in Hollywood.<\/p>\n Both women also share a restless, almost defiant streak against the industry\u2019s rigid expectations. Hepburn was notorious for refusing to play ing\u00e9nues and insisted on characters with wit, grit and a pointed refusal to apologize for their ambition. Stone, in her own era, has forged a similar path \u2014 often playing women who are messy, intelligent, sensual and deeply flawed, making them magnetic nonetheless. The throughline between the two actresses is not imitation, rather an inheritance: a lineage of artistry where authenticity triumphs over convention.<\/p>\n Delbis, an autistic actor who prefers that term over \u201cneurodivergent,\u201d is remarkable in his screen debut. His portrayal of Don, a young man torn between loyalty and the yearning for truth, is raw, honest and is the emotional backbone. His presence alongside seasoned performers like Stone and Plemons gives the film a livewire quality \u2014 the sense that something unpredictable, and therefore thrilling, could spark at any moment.<\/p>\n Like many of Lanthimos\u2019 films, \u201cBugonia\u201d is a full-scale awards contender, with potential across acting, directing and screenplay categories, and strong prospects in every craft category \u2014 including visual effects.<\/p>\n In many ways, the film achieves what Adam McKay wanted \u201cDon\u2019t Look Up\u201d to be: sharp, brittle social commentary on our world. The stark difference is that screenwriter Will Tracy never feels as though he\u2019s talking down to the audience. He\u2019s reflecting the world, holding a mirror up to our flawed selves.<\/p>\n But with the blend of multiple genres, I\u2019d suspect the film to be polarizing to a select few (think \u201cThe Substance\u201d last year). However, I think it will perform on par with \u201cPoor Things,\u201d which netted 11 nominations.<\/p>\n For Focus Features, this presents an enviable challenge of abundance: When your films are this good, the real art becomes deciding how to tell the story to voters.<\/p>\n Best of Variety<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With a shaved head, expert line deliveries and the assembly of another all-time memorable character, Emma Stone continues…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":189193,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[185,83398,171,103109,83819,105841,105842,104193,67,132,68,30989,103110],"class_list":{"0":"post-189192","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-emma-stone","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-jesse-plemons","12":"tag-katharine-hepburn","13":"tag-oscar-winners","14":"tag-poor-things","15":"tag-telluride-film-festival","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-venice-film-festival","20":"tag-yorgos-lanthimos"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115122926055068120","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}