In the film Bugonia, Teddy and his cousin, Don, who don’t appear to be very bright, have done something amazing. Based on stellar Internet research, they believe they have kidnapped someone from the Andromeda constellation and as a result, like so many whacky conspiracy theorists, they are going to save the world.  The constellation is a mere 2.5 million light-years away so to kidnap someone from there is a very big deal and yet, Teddy and Don, dropouts from the local high school, have done it! But before they start the rebellion to save the planet, they each chemically castrate themselves so they won’t be tempted by any Andromedan female look-a-likes. Like their captive.

To us, this alien looks like a pretty regular modern business woman. Beautiful. Smart. Sassy. Corrupt. And not very smart.  Her name is Michelle. She is part of a system of abuse and exploitation and Teddy believes her corporation has caused his bees and mother to die. She is the CEO of that business. A modern female executive. We don’t really have much sympathy for her, but Teddy and Don are not very sympathetic either. All the characters are flawed. OK, worse than flawed.

They kidnap her on her own yard, a long way from Andromeda, but they are sure that is where she is from.  They sedate her, grab her, and put her in their vehicle. They tie her up.  Treat her like an alien in other words.

She is upset. How dare they do this? They cut her hair and tied her to the bed. Teddy tells Don that “It is not in control any more. We are.” She is not human so is not treated like one.

All of this does not satisfy Don. He thinks he looks stupid in a suit that is too tight for him and was last worn by Teddy’s father.  He is right. He looks very stupid. When she wakes from her sedative, Teddy tells Michelle, shortly before torturing her,

“Welcome to the headquarters of the human resistance. Despite our general suspicion and disavowal of all extant governing bodies and despite the fact that you as an Andromedan are not subject to the human rights guidelines, detailed in the Geneva Conventions we nevertheless attempt to adhere to those guidelines out of humanist principles to which we aspire.”

They want her to bring them to “the Mother Ship” so they can stop the people from Andromeda from destroying our planet. From here on there is a battle of wits (or is it dimwits) between the 3 of them. They tell her “nothing you say is true.  Objective human truth has no value in Andromedan cognition.”  Unlike the world of whacky Internet conspiracy theorists of course. Teddy tells her,

“You are a high-ranking official in the royal Andromedan  court and you’ve aided your species in the techno-enslavement in the agro-corporate disintegration of planet earth. OK And we need you to bring us to your mother ship on the night of the lunar eclipse.”

Teddy points out that she has killed his family, his community, and his bees. “So given that, you should appreciate how super professional I’m being right now by not gutting you.” Teddy, the brighter one (or not), assures Don that she is not a human woman so they need not sympathize with her.  Even if she was, she is “pure corporate evil. It’s killing our planet, cuzzie.” They are cousins in the midst of an insane conspiracy. “It only knows cruelty.” It is an alien, Teddy assures Don. She just looks human. “It’s trying to gain your sympathy.”

But, Don, supposedly the dumber of the pair, was having understandable doubts about what they had done. So, Teddy assured him that one day the world would see him as a hero, for kidnapping the executive. That was good enough for Don.

n the battle of the dimwits, we see a battle of a dim-witted capitalist and dim-witted rebels. The liberal at one end of the universe. The revolutionaries at the other, staring at each other over a continent-sized abyss. Yes I know that is the modern world.  She says there are options.

He disagrees: “There are no options. There are no rules. There are no deals. There’s no payoff. There is no money. There is no legal system. There’s no Congress. There is no America. There is no global democratic order.”  This conversation ends with her saying he is mentally ill and him smashing her in the face. This is the new world order the film portrays. Not that far from the truth. Isn’t that the American way?

But there is one thing Michelle and Teddy both agree upon. Earth’s most admirable creatures are honey bees.  Based on what we see here that’s probably true.

As Tim Jonze a reviewer for the Guardian who likes this film more than I did, said in his review: she some redeeming value in the final collage of Earthlings dying, perhaps from the  poisons from Michelle’s corporation, including lovers in the middle of intercourse, dead drivers in cars, and school children dead in their classroom. But nature survives. Nature always bats last. Great. Jonze said  this  was perhaps the most straight-forward of the films of the director Yorogs Lanthimos,  for

“It addressed very modern ailments, from corporate ecocide to the people on society’s fringes being sucked down the worst wormholes of the internet. The only question you’re left wrestling with is not how to save humanity from itself, but whether human beings are really worth saving at all.”

After watching this film, I think the answer is obvious. And as far as I am concerned, Jonze can have this film. I have had enough.