"The Greek-born director Yorgos Lanthimos likes to make movies that trap his characters in confined spaces where a different set of rules applies from those in the outside world. In his early feature , three adult siblings are trapped in an eternal childhood by their brainwashing parents. The Lobster imagines a bizarre dystopia where all newly single people are given 45 days to find a life partner or face being transformed into animals."
"This tale of a pharmaceutical-industry CEO who's kidnapped by a low-wage worker at her company was inspired by the 2003 South Korean comedy Save the Green Planet!, a movie it structurally resembles enough to qualify as a remake. But in our current era of widespread social-media brain rot, the notion of a conspiracy theorist driven by his delusions to commit a violent crime hits different than it did at the turn of the millennium."
Yorgos Lanthimos repeatedly confines characters in controlled spaces governed by alternate rules, exemplified by films where siblings, single people, and courtly rivals face surreal constraints. Bugonia centers on a pharmaceutical CEO kidnapped by a low-wage employee and draws structural inspiration from the 2003 South Korean comedy Save the Green Planet!, functioning like a remake. The film reframes the premise for an era of social-media radicalization, portraying a conspiracy-driven, internet-poisoned male protagonist whose self-directed research leads to violent delusion. The result is an allegory of contemporary life that combines nauseating gore with blunt, obvious social critique.
Read at Slate Magazine
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