I liked the movie, but have thoughts now that I am done with it.
Loved it…but the ending. Ugh. I haven’t seen Save the Green Planet, the movie that this is a remake of. Looks like it shares the ending more or less.
Oh…she was an alien and Teddy had it all correct?
I think that actually might detract from the movie. It’s not like he was partially right, he had everything right including models of their ship. He, uh, was truly a genius of sorts that accurately analyzed the situation and came to the correct conclusions.
I don’t think the ending sinks the movie, but I was disappointed. This was no “Sixth Sense” type twist for me. More like a, “Oh…yeesh…oh…meh, ok.”
Anyone else seen it?
I loved it as well. The ending pleased me greatly. The actors were terrific in their roles.
I enjoyed it a lot, but I agree the ending was a bit too on the nose. It’s in the top half of Lanthimos films for me, but not quite as good as Poor Things.
Many Lanthimos films (Poor Things, The Favourite, and this movie in particular) are comedies at heart, which many people don’t appreciate when first introduced to one of his works.
It opened in theaters in late October and is still playing in a theater I consider a “bellwether” for the Oscars (its in a high end mall on the Westside, a lot of industry folks attend it, and, as an example, Anora played there continuously from October to March in 2024-25 which in retrospect was a definite signal). If it is still playing there in January, it’s going to be a serious contender come awards season.
Jesse Plemons gave one of the best performances of the year. Hope he gets an Oscar.
Wonderful acting. Plemons in particular was amazing, captivating when he was onscreen, loved the premise. I feel like it all fell apart with the ending. It’s supposed to be a black comedy, but I didn’t know that going in and it felt like a standard hostage drama right up until Plemons blew up. The ending felt like an entirely different movie to me, so it was a pretty uneven, what-the-fuck experience for me.
[reads wikipedia plot summary]
So, that’s it? I suspected (except for the complete extermination of all humanity. I didn’t see that coming!) Glad I didn’t waste any time watching it.
eta To be fair to those that like it - I think in general endings like that are a cop out. “I don’t know how to end a film, so…let’s just [do extreme thing]. That’ll make them talk.” It makes the movie’s plot…pointless. Teddy discovered the secret - everyone dies. Killing his mom, Casey, Don suiciding - nothing made a difference. Nothing mattered. The end.
I felt the same way after watching Terminator 3.
I didn’t love the movie, but the people I watched it with did. It was enjoyable enough to sit through, and the acting was quite phenomenal. You kinda know how the ending will be halfway through, but it was still a decent enough journey to see it all play out…
I wouldn’t watch it in theaters, necessarily, but for a couple hours streamed, it’s not the worst way to spend time.
The Wikipedia plot summaries don’t really capture all that much nuance. A lot of movies sound stupid if you just read a plot summary without any of the acting or pacing.
I’ve developed a policy of not watching any more end-of-the-world movies. I’ve never watched one whose content made the bummer of an ending worthwhile.
I have, but they are very few. Dr Strangelove, and The Rapture. That might be it. If there were more i liked, I can’t remember them.
Whoops. The exception is comedies. Dr Strangelove and This is The End are fun, and I’ve seen both multiple times.
There’s a wikipedia page of “Apocalyptic Films”. I would say their definition of “Apocalyptic” doesn’t match reality. I mean, Blade Runner? It has a functioning society. hardly end of the world stuff. I wouldn’t even call Deep impact apocalyptic. Humans are going to recover, rebuild. It’s just a disaster film.
Given that, Bugonia is not (currently) in the list, but Save The Green Planet! is.
Or most Post-Apocalyptic films. Or Dystopian films. Has anyone seen a utopian film where the ending etc doesnt show that it really isnt?
Blade Runner is not an Apocalyptic Films, but it could be called Dystopian.
If Blade Runner’s is a “functional” society… I think Bugonia’s would be an outright paradise by comparison!
Blade Runner has people doing things, going out, partying, owning (artificial) pets, without being armed and dressed Mad Max-style. They have off-world colonies which you can choose to move to. Most importantly, they have the rule of law.
I think it looks as bad as it does only because we see the grubby underside.
I’d love to edit their list, but using my exacting standards, it might have twenty films! 
No, he did not get everything correct. He got every factually verifiable thing correct but Emma Stone’s character explicitly refuted him on the motivations behind the Andromedans coming to Earth. That he was looking for an external source of blame because he could not accept it was the human’s own agency that caused the world he was living in now.
It’s up to you at the end of the movie to figure out to what extent you trust either of those characters as to what the reality was. The prolonged end sequence was there to give you time to digest and use this to reflect on your own opinions of humanity.