“Bugonia” is another outrageous film from cinema provocateur Yorgos Lanthimos.

Lanthimos is a five-time Oscar nominee, including for “Poor Things,” 2024; “The Favourite,” 2019, and “The Lobster,” 2017.

“Bugonia” is the fourth feature film collaboration of Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone.

Emma Stone is a five-time Oscar nominee, including for “Poor Things”; “The Favourite”; “La La Land,” 2017, and “Birdman (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance),” 2015.

Emma Stone received a best actress Oscar for “La La Land.”

Yorgos Lanthimos directed Emma Stone to a best actress Oscar win in “Poor Things.”

Yorgos Lanthimos directed Emma Stone in “Kinds of Kindness,” 2024; “The Favourite,” and a 30-minute short, “Bleat,” 2022.

The title of the movie, “Bugonia,” is derirved from the concept of Bugonia, said to be a folk practice in the ancient Mediterranean region based on the belief that bees spontaneously generated from a cow’s carcass.

In the movie, “Bugonia,” Teddy (Jesse Plemons) is a beekeeper who blames colony collapse on the chemicals produced by the multinational pharmaceutical company headed by Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone).

Leave it to Yorgos Lanthimos to make a film about a militant backyard beekeeper.

In “Bugonia,” Emma Stone plays Michelle Fuller, CEO of Auxolith, a multinational pharmaceutical company. Fuller is a woman in full, a sleek. self-contained powerhouse, an intelligent thought leader and a compassionate boss lady.

Her company has been doing experimental tests with new medications. One of those who was part of the trial drug study is Sandy (Alicia Silverstone), mother of Teddy Gatz (Jesse Plemons). The experiment went awry and the mother is in a coma in a hospital.

Plemons gets his cousin Don (Aidan Delbis), who is neurodevelopmentally-divergent, to help kidnap Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone) from her modern mansion.

They take Fuller to the former home of Teddy’s mother, where Teddy and Don live. There, they restrain Fuller in the basement. Teddy interrogates Fuller. It’s not pleasant and very uncomfortable to watch.

Teddy is convinced that Fuller is an alien, a ruler of the Andromedans. There are back and forth accusations and quite a bit of violence. Casey (Stavros Halkias), the local sheriff, shows up in the search for the missing Fuller.

There’s a lot more to the story and the plot, but that would be telling.

“Bugonia” is somewhat the movies “Silence of the Lambs” (1991) meets “Blue Velvet” (1986) meets “Pulp Fiction” (1994) meets TV’s “The X-Files” (1993-2002).

“Bugonia” is a Kafkaesque nightmare told for macabre laughs.

“Bugonia” is not for everyone. Movie-goers might be repulsed by the movie’s premise, political underpinnings and cavalier depictions of violence.

Emma Stone again creates an indelible character in Michelle Fuller. The movie is worth seeing for Stone’s performance alone, which is fierce, intense and memorable.

Opposite her is Jessie Plemons as Teddy, a deeply disturbed individual. Plemons’ performance is as convincing as it is alarming.

Yorgos Lanthimos co-wrote the screenplay with Will Tracy (screenwriter, ”The Menu,” 2022; TV’s “The Onion News Network,” 2011; eight-time Primetime Emmy Awards nominee and six-time winner, including for “Succession,” 2023, 2022, 2020, and “Last Week with John Oliver,” 2017, 2016, 2015).

The screenplay is also credited to Jang Joon-hwan, director, screenwriter, “Save the Green Planet,” 2003, a South Korean film, on which “Bugonia” is based.

Lanthimos is again working with cinematographer Robbie Ryan (two-time Oscar nominee, cinematography, “Poor Things,” “The Favourite”). Ryan is noted for extreme closeups, angled perspectives, combined with vista-like tableaus. Ryan filmed “Bugonia” in 35mm VistaVision.

The soundtrack composer is Jerskin Fendrix, whose real name is Joscelin Dent-Pooley (Oscar nominee, original score, “Poor Things,” and composer, “Kinds of Kindness,” 2024). The soundtrack is jarring, percussive and often intrusive.

“Bugonia” raises metaphorical questions that might not be only metaphorical. Are we all just worker bees? Is that good or bad? Is civilization collapsing like the colony collapse of a bee hive?

“Bugonia” doesn’t have the answers. It does ask many of the questions.

See this movie at your own risk.

“Bugonia,” MPA rated R (Restricted: Persons under 17 require an accompanying parent or adult guardian) for bloody violent content, including a suicide, grisly images and language; Genre: Crime Comedy Satire; Run time: 2 hours. Distributed by Focus Features.

Credit Readers Anonymous: The “Bugonia” soundtrack includes Green Day’s “Basket Case” and Chappell Roan’s “Good Luck, Babe!” Over the closing credits, “Where Have All the Flowers Gone,” written by Peter Seeger, is sung by Marlene Dietrich. “Bugonia” was filmed July through mid-September 2024 in Atlanta, Ga.; Oxforshire, England, and Milos Island, Greece.

At the Movies: “Bugonia” was seen in the standard digital format at AMC Center Valley 16.

Theatrical Movies Domestic Weekend Box Office, Nov. 7 - 9: “Predator: Badlands,” starring Elle Fanning in the Science-Fiction Thriller, stomped to a No. 1 opening with $40 million in 3,725 theaters.

2. “Regretting You” stayed in place, $7.1 million in 3,196 theaters, $38.5 million, three weeks. 3. ”Black Phone 2” dropped two places after its one-week return to No. 1 with $5.3 million in 2,943 theaters, $70.1 million, four weeks. 4. “Sarah’s Oil,” a Biography Drama based on the 2014 book, “Searching for Sarah Rector: The Richest Black Girl in America,” $4.4 million in 2,410 theaters, opening. 5. “Nuremberg,” the Biography Drama starring Russell Crowe as Hermann Göring, $4.1 million in 1,802 theaters, opening. 6. “Chainsaw Man - The Movie: Reze Arc” dropped three places, $3.6 million in 2,285 theaters, $38 million, three weeks. 7. “Bugonia” dropped two places, $3.5 million in 2,043 theaters, $12.3 million, three weeks. 8. “Die My Love,” a Comedy Drama based on the 2012 novel of the same title and starring Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson, $2.8 million in 1,983 theaters, opening. 9. “Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere” dropped two places, $2.2 million in 2,200 theaters, $20.3 million, three weeks. 10. “Tron: Ares” dropped two places, $1.8 million in 1,970 theaters, $71.2 million, five weeks. 11. “Christy,” a Biography Drama about professional boxer Christy Martin and starring Sydney Sweeney, $1.3 million in 2,011 theaters, opening.

Movie box office information from Box Office Mojo as of Nov. 9 is subject to change.

Unreel, Nov. 14:

“The Running Man,” MPA rated R; 2 hours, 13 minutes.

Edgar Wright directs Glen Powell, Emilia Jones, Josh Brolin, Katy O’Brian, Colman Domingo, William H. Macy and Michael Cera in the Science Fiction Comedy Thriller.

Ben Richards (Glen Powell) competes in a Reality TV game show whereby contestants are pursued by hired killers. If a contestant stays alive for 30 days, he or she wins $1 billion. Ben Richards wants to win the money to save the life of his daughter, who is ill.

Wright (director, “Last Night in Soho,” 2021; “Baby Driver,” 2017; “The World’s End,” 2013; “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” 2010; “Hot Fuzz,” 2007; “Shaun of the Dead,” 2004) co-wrote the screenplay with Michael Bacall.

Powell (“Twisters,” 2024) plays the title role in “The Running Man” played by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the original 1987 movie.

The movies are based on the 1982 novel by Stephen King.

“Now You See Me: Now You Don’t,” MPA Rated PG-13. 1 hour, 52 minutes.

Ruben Fleischer (director, “Zombieland,” 2009) directs Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, Isla Fisher, Rosamund Pike, Ariana Greenblatt and Morgan Freeman in the Crime Thriller.

A diamond heist reunites retired illusionists, The Four Horsemen, with new performers.

It’s a sequel to “Now You See Me 2” (2016) and “Now You See Me” (2013).

Movie opening dates from Internet Movie Database as of Nov. 9 are subject to change.

Three Popcorn Boxes out of Five Popcorn Boxes