Telluride Dispatch #2: Parties Galore, ‘Bugonia’ and ‘Jay Kelly’
Yesterday was an easygoing two-film day, bookended by parties. I kicked things off at the Focus Features event, where Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal dropped in to support Hamnet, and Jesse Plemons was on hand for Bugonia. Emma Stone arrived after I’d left (she clearly got the memo I had left). The night closed at the Sony Pictures Classics party, where Jodie Foster was present for A Private Life, and Richard Linklater (Nouvelle Vague and Blue Moon) mingled alongside Ethan Hawke (Blue Moon and Highway 99).
Telluride day two began with Lanthimos’s Bugonia, which might just be his most audience-friendly film yet (not that that is saying a lot). The venue buzzed with anticipation, with many movie stars and directors not attached to the film in attendance. Festival director Julie Huntsinger, usually composed, was visibly electric as she introduced the North American premiere. “This one’s going to kick your ass,” she declared with more excitement than I’ve ever seen in the nine years I’ve been attending.
Yorgos Lanthimos is without question among the most unique filmmakers working today. His vision of the absurd and bizarre is unmatched, crafting worlds where human behavior twists into surreal, unsettling shapes. While his films haven’t been major blockbusters, Poor Things (2023) grossed over $105 million worldwide, proving his niche can draw crowds. The Greek director’s Oscar pedigree is equally impressive: five nominations, including Original Screenplay (The Lobster, 2016), Director (The Favourite, 2018; Poor Things, 2023), and Best Picture (The Favourite, Poor Things). All this while making films that many would consider challenging or minimally accessible for the average moviegoer, blending dark humor with biting social commentary.
Bugonia, a remake of the 2003 South Korean cult hit Save the Green Planet!, follows two conspiracy-obsessed men, Teddy (Jesse Plemons) and his impressionable cousin Donald (Aidan Delbis), who kidnap pharmaceutical CEO Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone), convinced she’s an alien plotting Earth’s destruction. What unfolds is Lanthimos’s signature genre-hopping blast of dark comedy, intense drama, and paranoid thriller, laced with his usual misanthropy and a surprising emotional core. The film’s satire, penned by Will Tracy (Succession, The Menu), skewers today’s misinformation age, with Teddy’s unhinged rants about corporate greed and alien invasions feeling eerily of-the-moment. Yet it’s the verbal and psychological duel between Plemons and Stone that anchors the film, making it both hilariously unrestrained and unapologetically outlandish.
Jesse Plemons is a revelation, playing Teddy as a beekeeper teetering far past the verge of a nervous breakdown. His feverish intensity—eyes wild, voice cracking as he interrogates Michelle in a ramshackle basement—channels the paranoia of online echo chambers. Every twitch and outburst feels like a man unraveling, yet Plemons underscores Teddy’s mania with a tragic vulnerability, making you ache for him even as you recoil. It’s a career-best performance.
Emma Stone, in her fourth Lanthimos collaboration, is equally brilliant as Michelle, a sleek, successful businesswoman who stays cool under pressure. Her icy composure as she delivers cutting lines masks a cunning survivor, her polished exterior cracking just enough to hint at deeper humanity. Stone’s ability to match Plemons’s energy while grounding the absurdity reminds us why she’s already a two-time Oscar-winning actress.
Jerskin Fendrix’s high-drama score amplifies the chaos, while Daria D’Antonio’s cinematography uses stark contrasts and neon hues to mirror the story’s unhinged energy. Lanthimos balances his trademark surrealism with a tighter narrative than Kinds of Kindness, ultimately making Bugonia his most approachable work without losing its edge. I found myself laughing, squirming, and nodding at its timely jabs at our fractured world. Bugonia is a delirious thrill ride; hilarious, unsettling, and impossible to shake. (Grade: A-)
The second film I saw was Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly, starring George Clooney in the titular role, along with Adam Sandler and Laura Dern. The film followed a heartfelt tribute for Baumbach’s 30-year career, from Kicking and Screaming (1995) to his latest triumph. It was a touching tribute that culminated with Sandler and Dern joining him onstage to honor his legacy, setting the stage for a screening that defied the mixed buzz out of Venice. I must have seen a different film than our friends over in Italy, because Jay Kelly left me utterly captivated.
George Clooney delivers a masterful performance as Jay, an aging movie star whose glittering career masks a profound loneliness. Despite the constant buzz of his devoted entourage—led by his whip-smart publicist (Dern) and loyal manager (Sandler, delivering a masterful mix of humor and heart)—Jay feels achingly alone, haunted by choices that favored fame over time with his two daughters. A charged confrontation with an old friend (Billy Crudup, electrifying in a pivotal supporting role) forces Jay to question his identity, propelling him on a transformative journey across Europe. As he reflects on the sacrifices made for stardom, Jay wrestles with memories of those he’s drifted from and the legacy he hopes to reclaim. Infused with Baumbach’s signature wit and themes of identity, reflection, and remembrance, Jay Kelly is elevated through its stellar ensemble, making it a transcendent meditation on finding connection in a life marked by solitude.
As a father of two boys, with my eldest heading to college next spring, Jay Kelly struck a deeply personal chord. Like Jay, I’ve made choices that pulled me away from my children, decisions like attending the Telluride Film Festival, missing one of my son’s final high school football games in his senior year. The film’s emotional core, especially a piercing line from Crudup’s character about how parents become good only when they make themselves irrelevant, resonated painfully. Jay’s realization that his pursuit of an acting career, while highly successful, left him disconnected from his daughters mirrors my own fears: will my boys look back and feel I wasn’t there enough? Will they hold my choices against me, as Jay’s daughters do? The film’s climax, a tribute to Jay’s career overshadowed by his aching loneliness, overwhelmed me, reflecting the quiet dread of celebrating personal triumphs while wondering if they cost too much. Jay Kelly is a haunting reminder of the delicate balance between ambition and family, and the enduring hope for reconciliation.
Jay Kelly is a comedic triumph: sharp, funny, and unexpectedly tender. Baumbach has made a film of rare confidence, one that entertains but also reaches something personal and true. It’s a story of laughter and heartbreak, of people stumbling toward connection, and it left me grateful simply to have been in its presence. It may be Baumbach’s most complete work, a life-affirming achievement that belongs among his finest. Some films fade as the festival lights dim; this is one that will stay with me long after Telluride is only a memory. (Grade: A-)
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