Today is Sunday, November 16, 2025. As I indicated on Friday, I was going to be absent from this page on Saturday because I had a playdate with my longterm friend “Jake,” who has been my friend since high school. As expected, Jake and I had a very lengthy playdate beginning as early as 1:30 p.m. and ending almost 12 hours later, at 12:35 a.m. You must wonder how we spent this time together: well, there was a lot to catch up on since we last saw each other way back in June. Over snacks and ginger ale, the two of us spent several hours reviewing what occurred in each other’s lives during that time and then we discussed seeing Bugonia, the new film starring Emma Stone and directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, who has directed the star in several blockbuster films of late. Jake hadn’t heard about the film, but he certainly knew of Stone. He agreed to go with me to the Kew Gardens Cinema at 4:15 to see the 4:45 show.

I took Jake to the car parked on 112th Street and drove to the movie house. I asked if Jake had driven in our new car which is not so new anymore: it will mark a year with us on November 30 which is not that far into the future. I can’t believe it’s almost a year old myself. Like I can’t believe I’m a septuagenarian as of November 8.

Anyway, we got to the cinema close to 4:45, and we missed a few of the previews. Now to the movie that is quite a thrill ride. Emma Stone plays a Forbes list big pharmaceutical chief executive who is kidnapped by raging conspiracy theorist Teddy Gatz, here played by a more streamlined Jesse Plemons. Teddy is given reluctant assistance by his too-soft-for-the world cousin Donny to kidnap Stone’s Michelle Fuller. I’m not sure if the actor himself, Aidan Delbis, as Donny, is on the spectrum, but I just checked and discover that he really is.

Therefore, Teddy strongly believes Stone to be an alien from the Andromedan species, covertly controlling humanity and killing the bees. Teddy, by the way, is an amateur apiarist who keeps bees on his dilapidated farm. Teddy is also an employee of Stone’s firm, working on the factory level as a wrapper.

Once the pair steel themselves for the object of seizing the pharmaceutical executive, they abduct her from her worksite and bring her to their house where they shave her head to prevent her from communicating with her intergalactic peers. They then lock her in the basement and insist she arrange a meeting with her Andromedans before a lunar eclipse allows an invasion of earth.

The rest of the film consists of Stone and Teddy squaring off in pyschological person-to-person combat in which Stone first denies she’s an alien and that she’s responsible for the damage to the planet that Teddy accuses her of and that he’s just enwrapped himself in Internet conspiracy theories, which I believed was Lanthimos’s critique of our very divided political climate of the moment. But this turns into much, much more as the plot develops to its shattering climax that I won’t divulge here.

We soon learn another reason for Teddy’s anger directed toward Stone as Fuller: flashbacks reveal that Auxolith – Michelle’s pharmaceutical company – recruited Teddy’s mother as a test subject for one of their drugs, which left her in a coma.

All I’ll say is Jake didn’t enjoy the film as much as I did. Actually, I’m still wondering if I did enjoy it, given the shocking conclusion. I did throughly enjoy the acting of the principals: Stone, Plemons, and, even, Beldis, in his very first role, as Donny, Teddy’s cousin. Plemons is very believable in his crazy thinking until it isn’t; and Stone is magnificent as a hostage who uses psychological manipulation initially and then accedes to the fantasy that is supposedly at the core of her captor’s mindset. Go see it and tell me what you think of the denouement.

For those of you who are as curious as I was about the origins of the title of the film, I looked it up on Google. Thus “bugonia” refers to an ancient Greek term for the belief that bees spontaneously generated from the carcass of a sacrificed ox. It’s seen as a symbol of death and renewal, with the idea that new life could emerge from death. If you do see this film, you will see manifestations of this in the very last image displayed on the screen. You’ll be all “abuzz” that you saw this very controversial film with a very talented cast.

After the film, we walked to the Village Diner for dinner. We mused over the film one more time and then scanned the menu to choose something to nourish our bodies. Jake ordered a chicken souvlaki, while I ordered a cup of chicken rice soup and then meatloaf as my entree. Of course, I had coffee with my meal.

When we left the diner, rain started to fall, so we walked briskly back to the car. I drove back to the building, having to park in our garage. I took my blue umbrella from the Subaru back to the apartment building.

Upstairs, I offered Jake milk and a slice of the chocolate fudge cake I baked on Friday. He pronounced the cake “very good” and asked for a second slice. I heated some water for tea.

We met Elliot who was home and had mentioned that he saw Bugonia at the same theater, but at 2. He gave the film a thumbs up and then settled back into the bedroom, while I entertained Jake in the living room.

The rest of the night was spent watching another film on Hulu, one that I saw before, but I was willing to rewatch it: Longlegs starring Nicolas Cage as the most deranged, bizarre serial killer there ever was.

Again, Jake was not too impressed even with this film. From there, I turned off the set and we chatted until almost 12:30 when I announced it was late already. Jake got the hint and began bundling himself up for the ride home. I walked him to the elevator and bid him adieu.

Now that Jake has departed, I’m left with snacks I don’t need like potato chips and Tostitos. Anyone want some?

Since it’s the weekend, I won’t go on a rant against this brutal regime, but just wanted to remind everyone that pressure is building for this “dys”-administration to release the Epstein files immediately. Hell, even former Dump loyalist Marjorie Taylor Greene has aligned herself with Democrats who are forcefully pushing for its release, and that must be bad for the adjudicated sexual predator in the White House! Maybe the cracks are appearing in the MAGA fortress, finally. Let more of these MAGA lawmakers abandon ship before 2026! This will be great for us- and for democracy as a whole.

Have a great week.

And so it went!