Emma Stone Is Kidnapped By Conspiracy Theorists, and Shaved Bald, in ‘Bogonia’

You wouldn’t think a movie about two conspiracy theorists who think a woman they know is from another planet would be a comment on our current sociopolitical situation, but here we are.

Jesse Plemons stars as a sad-sack incel who has spent so much time down rabbit holes on Reddit and YouTube that he becomes convinced Michelle (Emma Stone), the high-powered CEO of the pharmaceutical company where he works in the mailroom, is an extraterrestrial.

Believing the drugs the corporation makes are poison, he and his neurodivergent cousin Don (Aidan Delbis) inject Michelle with a sedative and kidnap her. She wakes up chained in their basement with her face covered in a white antihistamine cream and her hair shaved to keep her from communicating with her mothership.

The captors, who call themselves the human resistance, claim they’ll let her go if she introduces them to her leader. They want to negotiate a peace treaty with the aliens that will prevent the E.T.s from continuing to poison the world with their drugs, which the captors believe are at the root of all their problems.

The situation sets off an unlikely, and unequal, battle of wills that is both funny and a poignant exploration of the gulf between the haves and have-nots.

Don’t miss this very original film that will no doubt be on many critics’ 10 best-of-the-year lists.

Bugonia | In theaters Friday, Oct. 24 R