Bugonia (2025)

 

I didn't know too much about this film going into the theater, I had seen a few pieces of the trailer here and there and several billboards of bald Emma Stone (who joins the ranks of the likes of Demi Moore and Natalie Portman in fully shaving her hair for the film) but other than that I was not remotely prepared for how crazy this film gets. Emma Stone plays a new age millennial, CEO, who speaks purely in fake positive corporate jargon that I'm sure many are familiar with ("let's circle back to that and we'll loop you in later" kinda stuff) . Jesse Plemons, on the other hand, plays a disgruntled outcast, who lives on his family's farm out in the boonies, who obsesses over what's killing the bees and alien invaders who are enslaving humans. What unfolds is a truly wild and unpredictable ride so I won't go any further into the story, its truly a film that you should see for yourself (if you have the stomach for it). 

What I will say is that Emma Stone truly does go all out in this film and has definitely inspired me to go back and watch Poor Things soon (also directed by Yorgos Lanthimos). Jesse Plemons is also brilliant and plays the psychopathic character as well as ever. Although very violent and intense, this film also has surprising amount of humor throughout (Stavros is in this? and he's one of the best parts?) and the pacing is perfect as the audience is often left guessing what could possibly happen next. The score builds in intensity in just the right moments and blares triumphantly throughout. 

If you are craving a new and definitely original thriller with a fair amount of well-placed gratuitous violence, I would definitely recommend this film. I went in not knowing much about the premise or people's reception of the film and I certainly enjoyed it, however, I was unsure of exactly what I thought of the film upon seeing the credits roll. The film invites the audience to really dwell on the story long after its over, and the plot is truly unique, which honestly is what I think I liked about it the most. In the end, I really enjoyed the ride and I feel like Lanthimos does a great job making sure the audience never gets too comfortable, and even start to question their own interpretation of events. If anything I can promise you that if you do watch this film it is one that you won't soon forget (hopefully for good reasons, unlike Jurassic World: Rebirth, which is a movie I wish I could forget). 

-Ryan Maples

Rating 9/10

Jurassic World: Rebirth (2025)

 

This is less of a review and more of a PSA: if you value your time and have a fleeting amount of it to spend, for the love of god don't waste it on this awful film. I only watched this movie because I was on a plane and I still feel as though I could have spent my time better. This soulless cash grab of a dino flick is even more banal and pointless than the last two (which I really thought was impossible.

I would go into more spoilery details because I would honestly be doing everyone who hasn't seen it yet a favor, but the movie is so lacking in memorable moments (outside of the laughably bad acting and writing) it isn't even worth spoiling (you already know this movie is on some serious BS when the film starts with a single empty Snickers wrapper bringing a multi-billion dollar experimental scientific facility to its knees). One saving grace for this disaster of a film could have been some satisfying dinosaur-eating-humans scenes but unfortunately we don't even really get anything memorable in that department either, at least the previous Jurassic World movies could get that right (in at least one of the death scenes our view is completely blocked and we can't even see the person getting eaten. I feel robbed!). 

If you do decide to subject yourself to this movie, then expect to find dialogue full of mind-numbingly unsubtle exposition, characters whose motivations make no sense and don't line up with their actions at all (Scarlett Johansson and her band of merry mercenaries with hearts of gold, but also they want to get rich quick are not doing it for me, I'm sorry) and one of the lamest, dumbest-looking final boss "dinosaurs" I've ever seen; I seriously couldn't decide whether to laugh or be disgusted, (just stick with the T-Rex folks, we don't need to reinvent the wheel here). 

I could overlook some of this nonsense if the movie was at least fun at all and wasn't full of annoying characters (ah look, it's the useless, lazy boyfriend who inexplicably performs heroic actions that you would have never expected from him and somehow earns the trust and respect of his girlfriend's father and don't forget the scared kid who doesn't talk half the time because they are so scared, or the father whose leg is only injured when one of his daughters is in danger, and I already mentioned the mercenaries with hearts of gold *eyeroll*); unfortunately, this movie is a true bore, even the scenes that are borrowed from the original novels fall flat and don't have nearly as much intensity as the books did (I was so looking forward to the T-rex raft chase scene as a fan of the novel, but even that didn't live up to expectations). Everything in this movie just sort of happens because that's what was in the script, if that makes sense. If you find yourself craving a dinosaur flick, do yourself a favor and just watch the original Jurassic Park again, or even the original Jurassic World, heck even the 1960 version of The Lost World would be a better use of your time. 

-Ryan Maples

Rating: 2/10