Someone shared with me that conspiracy theories function as economic systems which people use when they fail to track financial paths. The video Bugonia presented to me showed how risk assessment failures result in what others consider to be madness.
Teddy Gatz works in a warehouse. Cycles to his job at a pharmaceutical company whose CEO makes more in a morning's skincare routine than he does in a year. He resides with his cousin in a residence which appears to be the final destination of all financial investments. Keeps bees. The person has made up their mind to believe their supervisor operates as an extraterrestrial being who wants to wipe out human existence.
The thing is, Teddy isn't entirely wrong about the fundamentals. His mother lies comatose in a hospital bed after an Auxolith drug trial went sideways. The honeybee population faces a major disaster because of colony collapse disorder. The company really does manufacture neonicotinoids. He has recognized actual market failures which exist in the market. The entire mistake occurred when he assigned wrong assignments to other team members.
The actor Jesse Plemons depicts this character through his performance which shows a man who experiences moral pressure from his sweating while his long hair is tied back into a ponytail that appears to be a sign of defeat. The character shows his understanding of the world through a detailed explanation to his autistic cousin Don when he says "A dead colony exists as a single unit which has broken into trillion separate parts that cannot find their way back to each other."He refers to the bees. He also means himself.
Emma Stone delivers her performance as Michelle Fuller by making emotional work seem completely effortless for her character. She sits in the basement with her head shaved and antihistamine cream applied to her skin to prevent her supposed psychic abilities while remaining in chains during her ongoing negotiations. "Your capital has no value to us," Teddy tells her when she offers money, which is both the most idealistic and the most economically illiterate thing anyone says in the film. Capital always has value. That's rather the problem.
The screenplay by Will Tracy contains the same harsh elements which he used in The Menu but this time the social anger produces unusual plot developments. Michelle creates corporate videos about diversity which she shows to her warehouse staff who perform their duties at work. Teddy studies manifestos through online platforms which leads him to believe that most people who call themselves activists actually use their activism to show themselves and protect their personal brands. Both statements are probably true. Neither helps anyone.
The basement scenes depict a hostile business merger discussion which leads to physical violence between the characters. Stone has perfected this particular register with Lanthimos, the frozen corporate smile that never quite reaches the eyes. She delivers information about bee population decline through a voice that matches corporate quarterly earnings announcements which makes Teddy question her human nature even though he doubts her particular theories.
Robbie Ryan's VistaVision photography is almost perversely beautiful for such claustrophobic material. The camera shows the small home space through religious eyes as Plemons fills the entire screen with his deeply religious expression. There's something being said here about how conspiracy theories offer grandeur to people denied it elsewhere. Teddy gets to be the protagonist of a world-historical drama instead of just another bloke whose mum got sick and whose hives are dying.
Aidan Delbis plays Don with controlled accuracy which serves as an emotional reference point. He hasn't read the forums. He just loves his cousin. The actor shows signs of distress during his torture scenes because he has not fully understood the philosophical ideas. He shows no interest in watching anyone experience pain. The village residents lived a simple existence which made me develop feelings of envy.
The story shows its main theme about human destruction through a final section which keeps all details hidden. The interpretation between bleak nihilism and optimistic perspective depends on which beliefs you hold about human worth in relation to our current society.
I walked out thinking about the price of antihistamine cream bought in bulk. About how much it costs to maintain a comatose patient. The comparison shows how warehouse workers receive their hourly wages compared to what their CEO earns through his minute-by-minute compensation. The film presents this information without performing the actual mathematical calculations. The system displays numbers to you before it will proceed.
