Welcome back to my Home Movies! Today, the penultimate column for 2025 features one of the year’s best films in Bugonia hitting shelves. This week also features some other interesting titles, including Black Phone 2 and The Long Walk. What else is available as we begin to close the book on this year and turn our attention to 2026? Read on to find out…
Joey’s Top Pick
Bugonia
Whatever Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone do together, I’m seated for. They have a mind meld that leads to some real high quality madness. This time around, Bugonia establishes Jesse Plemons as a part of the Lanthimos troupe. The flick is somehow both more grounded and more out there than usual for the group, and I loved every moment of it. I spoke to screenwriter Will Tracy here about the adaptation (as well as the original work), so definitely give that a listen, as it’s a really enjoyable chat. Back at the Telluride Film Festival here, I said the following about the movie:
There is something very special going on between Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone. Not only do they bring out the best in each other, something Lanthimos has also done with Colin Farrell in the past, they also seem to be challenging each other to go in new and exciting directions. Now, with Bugonia, we can add Jesse Plemons to that as well. Surely one of the wildest titles at the Telluride Film Festival this year, it’s challenging and extreme at times, but also still massively entertaining. For all its madness, I loved it.
Bugonia is absolutely insane, yet also for much of the runtime easily Lanthimos’ most grounded work in some time. When things get wild, they really get wild, but nearly two thirds of this film is a verbal duel between Plemons and Stone. The movie is not shying away from political overtones, though it also allows you to put your own view of the world on to the characters and their worldviews. In that way, there’s more humanity and anger on display from Lanthimos, centered on an intimate and largely contained story.
Also Available This Week
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey
Black Phone: 2-Movie Collection (4K)
Cloud Atlas (4K)
Laurel and Hardy: The Restored Features Vol. 1 (Blu-ray)
Perfect Blue (4K)
Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (4K)
We Are Still Here: 10th Anniversary (Blu-ray)
*No new Criterion Collection releases this week. They will return in the new year…*
Stay tuned for more next week!
