0:02 So last night I saw the movie Beonia
0:04 starring Emma Stone and Jesse Plemens
0:06 directed by Yorgos Lanthamos. And I'm
0:08 such a fan of Yorgos and his filmmaking
0:10 style from poor things to dog tooth to
0:12 the killing of a sacred deer. I've
0:13 analyzed so many of his movies at this
0:15 point and I just love how he always
0:17 takes these really quirky characters and
0:20 puts them into these very bizarre worlds
0:23 and sort of uses that to criticize and
0:25 satarize our real world. It's so much
0:27 fun. So with Pagonia in particular, I've
0:29 done plenty of research on the making of
0:30 the film, the social commentary, the
0:32 black and white flashbacks, and the
0:34 countless symbols around humanity,
0:36 nature, and corporate leadership. So to
0:37 break this movie down, we're going to
0:40 use three themes. One, humanity's
0:41 self-destruction. We'll discuss the
0:43 original Korean film, the reason for
0:44 this remake, and the political
0:47 inspiration. Two, rivalry of radicals.
0:49 We'll discuss Michelle's character,
0:50 Teddy's character, Officer Casey, the
0:52 black and white flashbacks, Teddy's
0:53 mother, the unique aspect ratio, the
0:56 cinematography, and the musical score,
0:58 and three, inevitable rebirth. We'll
0:59 discuss the bees, the title of the film,
1:01 Dawn's character, Michelle's real
1:03 identity, and the ending with the
1:05 mothership, and the final song in the
1:06 soundtrack, and so much more. Hope you
1:09 enjoy. Theme number one, humanity's
1:11 self-destruction. When you watch a movie
1:14 as wild and bizarre as Beonia, it may
1:16 seem entirely fresh and original, but
1:18 it's not the first of its kind. It's a
1:21 remake. Beonia is based on a 2003 Korean
1:24 science fiction dark comedy called Save
1:26 the Green Planet. The major plot points
1:29 between Save the Green Planet and Beonia
1:31 are just about the same, where a deeply
1:34 traumatized man and a partner of his
1:36 work together to kidnap a pharmaceutical
1:39 company's CEO and force them to admit
1:40 they're an alien. And I'm sure you can
1:42 tell by the title of the original film
1:44 that many of the themes are the same as
1:46 well. The self-destruction of humanity,
1:49 systemic classism fostering poor mental
1:52 health, and the inhumity of corporate
1:54 control. Just this time around with
1:56 Beonia, we're touching it up slightly to
1:59 fit the social and political chaos and
2:03 normalies of the current decade today.
2:05 And it's no surprise Midsomar and
2:07 hereditary director Ari Aster was the
2:09 one to hire Yorgos Lanthamos and
2:12 screenwriter Will Tracy to remake Save
2:13 the Green Planet under his production
2:16 company Square Peg. As Ari hasn't been
2:18 shy at all in expressing his concerns
2:20 with the trajectory of our environmental
2:23 and socopolitical climate, especially
2:25 considering his last movie, Edington,
2:28 which covers a lot of the same pressing
2:30 contemporary issues as Beonia. And at an
2:33 Alamo Draft House advanced screening in
2:36 New York, Will Tracy explains the social
2:38 issues he pulled from to write the
2:41 script for Beonia specifically. A lot of
2:43 it was maybe stealing a little bit from
2:45 the way I was feeling when writing the
2:47 script and I probably have continued to
2:49 feel this way. The feeling of occasional
2:52 alienation and isolation, not really
2:54 understanding what is happening to
2:56 various civic institutions and not
2:58 really feeling a great sense of
3:00 connection to American democracy, if
3:02 it's still called that. And I wouldn't
3:04 say I subscribe to any conspiracy
3:06 theories, but maybe feeling I can't
3:10 fully trust whatever the official story
3:12 always is. So it wasn't then too great
3:15 of a leap to try and imagine someone who
3:17 kind of creates their own story. So
3:20 yeah, strangely, maybe scarily, I didn't
3:23 find it that difficult to access Teddy
3:24 when I was writing him. And when you
3:26 hear this sort of concern from a writer
3:28 and you pair it up with a director like
3:30 Yorgosanthamos, it's sort of like a
3:33 match made in heaven because Yorgos's
3:36 filmmaking style is perfectly in line
3:38 with a film like Save the Green Planet.
3:41 They have that same spirit, quirky,
3:44 satirical irony used as a tool to shine
3:46 a light on a very interesting or
3:48 thought-provoking social commentary
3:50 about the real world. And that's the
3:52 exact writing and directing strategy
3:54 we're seeing here with Beonia. So, let's
3:57 now get into how your ghost uses these
3:58 specific characters and narrative to
4:01 address the various societal issues we
4:03 have going on today. In theme number
4:07 two, rivalry of radicals. When you think
4:09 of Beonia's scope thematically, it's
4:12 actually very big because it's taking on
4:14 these very big issues, social,
4:17 political, economic, and environmental.
4:18 But when you look at Beonia Scope
4:20 narratively, it's actually very small,
4:22 taking place in just a few different
4:24 locations, most of the time confined to
4:27 that basement with just two central
4:29 characters. And the reason for this is
4:31 Yorgos is using these two main
4:34 characters, each purposely at complete
4:37 opposite sides of the socioeconomic
4:40 spectrum to compare and contrast and
4:42 countercitize their beliefs and values
4:44 through their dialogue back and forth.
4:46 And within these conversations, we can
4:49 explore many of these issues that make
4:51 our greater world so dangerous and
4:53 harmful in many ways. So, let's start
4:56 with the side of Emma Stone's character,
4:59 Michelle. Michelle Fuller is a CEO of a
5:01 major pharmaceutical company called
5:03 Oxalith. And for this film, she
5:06 represents the disingenuous, falsely
5:08 heroic nature of corporations down to
5:11 the internal workplace culture and the
5:13 external public image. She speaks
5:15 entirely through corporate speak buzz
5:17 terms and political correctness only to
5:20 frame what she says in a way where it
5:22 seems ethical and fair and
5:24 compassionate. But beneath that shin,
5:26 she's really just stealing the freedom
5:28 of her employees. And the best example
5:31 of her facade being exposed the most
5:33 overtly is when we see the way she
5:35 speaks between the takes of her
5:37 diversity video campaign. and watching
5:39 her walk and talk through the workplace
5:40 makes for some of the funniest moments
5:42 in the movie, but thematically it seems
5:44 to represent the selfish and
5:46 manipulative nature of the powerful
5:50 versus the false freedom of the everyday
5:51 person. And in an interview with Next
5:54 Best Picture, Emma Stone expands on this
5:56 with what her character represents and
5:58 how she fit herself into that role.
6:01 Teddy is such a raw nerve, such an open
6:03 book of a human being, whereas Michelle,
6:06 my character, is sort of the opposite.
6:09 So actually finding humanity wasn't my
6:10 biggest goal. It was saying things
6:12 correctly in the properly trained way.
6:14 You know, the way HR would teach you,
6:16 corporate speak, the illusion of
6:19 humanity through a CEO's mind. And as
6:21 Emma kind of hints at in this quote, no
6:24 one is more aware of that corporate
6:27 false humanity than Teddy. Which brings
6:30 me to Jesse Pleman's character side with
6:32 Teddy. So, the character of Teddy Gats
6:34 is designed to represent those who have
6:36 been completely crushed by the system
6:38 and feel completely betrayed by the
6:40 system that people like Michelle sit so
6:42 comfortably at the top of. And to
6:44 further emphasize this power dynamic,
6:47 Teddy works for Oxalith, taping
6:49 packages. His brutally honest,
6:51 vindictive nature and insatiable
6:54 dedication to conspiracy research stems
6:57 from a deeply traumatic past. We learn
6:59 quickly when we meet local sheriff Casey
7:01 that he was sexually abusive with Teddy
7:03 when babysitting him. And a drug trial
7:05 with Oxalith put his mother in a coma,
7:07 which Michelle and her company covered
7:09 up publicly. And this brings me to
7:11 Teddy's mother, Sandy, and the symbolism
7:13 of those black and white flashback
7:15 scenes. In an earlier scene with Dawn
7:18 and Teddy, Dawn says, "You know, I wish
7:19 you could fix everything that's been
7:21 done to you." Implying that there was
7:24 likely even more tragedy to Teddy's
7:25 story that we, as the audience, haven't
7:27 heard of. And this is revealed to be
7:30 true when Alicia Silverstone, who plays
7:33 Sandy, discusses a deleted scene between
7:35 Sandy and her son, Teddy. There was a
7:37 moment where he was being wrapped in
7:40 tinfoil. I was protecting him from the
7:42 very scary people that were going to
7:43 come get him. When I read the script,
7:46 she seemed to be this drugaddicted
7:48 woman. So clearly Sandy was a victim of
7:50 drug addiction, mental illness, and
7:52 conspiracy related paranoia, wrapping
7:54 her son in tin foil to protect him from
7:57 suspected mind control and radiation
7:59 from pharmaceutical companies, products,
8:02 and surveillance. So those flashback
8:04 scenes in black and white are meant to
8:07 be this symbolic, blurry, dreamlike
8:10 reflection of Teddy's darkest memories.
8:12 They're colorless and surreal, almost
8:16 like Teddy's own personal hell. the
8:17 massive needles representing Sandy's
8:20 drug addiction. Her body floating into
8:22 the air representing her prolonged
8:25 transcendence into the afterlife and the
8:29 particular focus on Michelle's greatly
8:32 insincere apology for the Oxalate trials
8:35 gone wrong. And while Teddy's chaotic
8:37 conspiracy theorist lifestyle is meant
8:39 to reflect these individuals in society
8:41 who have been forgotten and left behind,
8:43 targeting big pharma domination and
8:45 alien intelligence and a flat earth,
8:47 hinted in one of the chapter images.
8:50 Teddy isn't completely off base with his
8:52 concerns for the world. He's aware of
8:54 corporate greed and dishonesty and
8:56 encourages his co-workers to demand fair
8:58 compensation when it's owed to them and
9:00 criticizes universities for their
9:02 credentialist scams. As he says, the guy
9:04 is not wrong. The character is designed
9:06 to take these very challenging yet
9:09 plausible arguments, but then push them
9:13 so far to the point that no one sane can
9:15 get behind them. And that's certainly
9:17 what Will Tracy means when he says in
9:19 that earlier quote that Teddy wasn't
9:21 that hard to get into when writing that
9:23 character. Jesse himself even chimes in
9:26 on what the character means to him. To
9:28 me, it's like this pure kind of
9:30 representation of this subterranean
9:32 feeling that is existing in the world
9:34 right now that most people are doing
9:37 everything they can to just shove down
9:39 so they can go about their daily lives.
9:41 And as I mentioned before, this is why
9:43 the movie's narrative scope is so small,
9:46 but the thematic scope is so big. the
9:49 ideas, the philosophy, the ambition of
9:50 the characters, and it's the musical
9:53 score and cinematography that capture
9:57 that colossal perspective. The 1.5:1
9:59 aspect ratio stretches the imagery to
10:01 look towering and grand, and so much of
10:04 the camera work is positioned slightly
10:07 beneath the actors to lift them up above
10:09 the audience, even in the tightest
10:11 spaces, like the basement. The musical
10:13 score is also written like it's meant
10:15 for a different movie, like a period
10:17 epic from the 1960s. But all of this
10:19 cinematic extravagance is used to
10:21 capture the larger than-l life
10:24 perspectives of our two very delusional
10:27 false heroes and rivals in this movie.
10:29 But there's one more character who sits
10:31 between them on this philosophical
10:33 spectrum who I haven't yet said very
10:35 much about. So, let's discuss the
10:38 character of Dawn as well as the ending
10:41 and the many remaining major symbols in
10:44 theme number three, inevitable rebirth.
10:47 The very first sequence we see in the
10:49 film is of a bee pollinating a field of
10:51 flowers. And over these images, we have
10:53 an opening monologue from Teddy voicing
10:56 his concerns about the decline of bee
10:58 populations across the world and the
11:00 corporations who have no regard for the
11:01 integral role they play in our
11:04 ecosystems, poisoning and starving them
11:06 with chemical farming, pollution, and
11:08 urban expansion. And this bee commentary
11:10 is rightfully placed at the very start
11:13 of the film because it has a strong
11:15 overarching double meaning. From one
11:17 angle, more literally, the bees
11:19 represent the accelerating destruction
11:21 of the natural world as a result of
11:23 corporate greed and irresponsibility.
11:25 From another angle, the bees represent
11:27 corporate oppression and the
11:30 self-destruction of the human race. As
11:32 these bees being hardworking members of
11:34 a hive reflect the working class and the
11:36 many human beings it takes for a
11:38 theoretical hive to function, while the
11:41 corporation shamelessly disregards the
11:43 importance of those workers, workers
11:45 like Teddy. So Teddy's efforts to
11:47 protect the bees reflect his efforts to
11:50 save his own kind. And when the topic of
11:51 declining bee populations is brought up
11:53 to Michelle, as you would expect, she
11:56 claims it may just be the bee's fault
11:58 themselves and their lack of strength in
12:00 a changing world, which further reflects
12:02 the ongoing lack of corporate
12:05 accountability and willful corporate
12:07 ignorance. And on the topic of bees
12:08 pollination in the natural world, the
12:11 film's title, Beonia, is spelled with a
12:13 U instead of an E like the flower.
12:15 Enorgos has a very clear answer to this
12:17 creative choice in an interview with
12:20 CBR. Beonia comes from the Greek word
12:22 beonia. There was a belief in ancient
12:24 Greece that bees were born out of the
12:27 carcass of a dead ox. But I also liked
12:29 it because of the flower which is beonia
12:31 instead of beonia. And it also sounded
12:34 like a planet in some way like something
12:37 unknown at least like an unknown kind of
12:39 world. And through this quote, Yorgos is
12:41 saying that the title captures the
12:44 themes tied to the bee commentary that
12:45 we just mentioned earlier, as well as
12:48 the suspicions of extraterrestrial
12:50 beings and very importantly with the
12:53 Greek reference, this theme of rebirth,
12:56 which ties in very largely with the
12:58 ending, which we will get to very soon.
12:59 But what I love the most about this
13:01 title personally, especially after
13:04 Yorg's explanation of it, is it embraces
13:07 the importance of the smallcale subject
13:09 matter and the large scale subject
13:11 matter at the same time, just like the
13:12 film does so well. The grand
13:14 cinematography, the heroic musical
13:16 score, as well as the imagery that
13:18 almost looks like classical theater.
13:19 Most notably, the shot of Michelle with
13:21 the bald head, the burgundy coat, and
13:23 the white cream all over her skin. It
13:25 almost looks Shakespearean in a way. But
13:28 in the very middle of this epic faceoff
13:31 between these two philosophical titans
13:34 is Dawn. Dawn, often told not to speak
13:36 and left unheard, is revealed to be the
13:38 most mentally and emotionally self-aware
13:40 character in the movie, which to me
13:42 reflects the suppressed middle majority
13:44 between so much radical political
13:47 feuding online and in media. But more
13:50 importantly, he's the voice of humanity
13:51 in the film. In Will's interview with
13:54 Collider, he describes Dawn beautifully
13:56 as the conscience of the film. Dawn
13:58 questions Teddy's radical
13:59 decision-making, and in countless
14:01 moments, he acts out of compassion for
14:03 Michelle, like using the hair clipper
14:04 too lightly and pulling the plug on the
14:07 electric chair when she is essentially
14:09 the enemy. It's a voice of humanity that
14:11 is suppressed further and further until
14:13 it can no longer sustain itself.
14:16 Thematically, Dawn's death is
14:18 inevitable. And this idea is sort of
14:22 taken to a global scale when we finally
14:24 move into the ending. So Teddy believes
14:26 Michelle is an alien of the Andromedan
14:28 race from the Andromeda galaxy, the
14:31 nearest large spiral galaxy to the Milky
14:33 Way, a place that some conspiracy
14:35 theorists actually believe has
14:37 intelligent life. And Teddy has many
14:38 more beliefs aligning with these real
14:41 theories like head hair energy receptors
14:44 and undetected lunar eclipse landings.
14:45 And in a later reveal, we learned that
14:48 Teddy has been kidnapping and killing
14:51 suspected Andromedans for a long time
14:53 before he eventually now has captured
14:55 Michelle. And finally, Michelle reveals
14:57 a truth that the audience at the time
15:00 believes is a lie, where she says she is
15:02 really an alien, explaining how they
15:04 came to Earth millions of years ago,
15:05 accidentally killing the dinosaurs, and
15:08 out of remorse, they created humans. But
15:09 as these humans evolved from their
15:12 ape-like ancestors, they became terribly
15:14 inhumane and selfish. And all of those
15:17 failed oxalith drug trials like on Sandy
15:20 were intended to help humans evolve into
15:23 a more mature and compassionate race.
15:24 But as we all find out, the big twist is
15:27 that every lie Michelle told Teddy up
15:30 until his death was actually the truth.
15:32 The calculator was a controller for a
15:34 teleporter in the closet of her office
15:36 that would transport the individual to
15:38 the Andromedan mothership. And sadly,
15:40 all of those Oxelith trials failed. So,
15:42 the Andromedans declared the humans
15:45 unworthy and killed them all with the
15:46 pop of that bubble around that Earth
15:48 model. I would assume this bubble
15:50 symbolically represents the destruction
15:53 of the ozone layer which warms the globe
15:55 and eventually kills us all. And in the
15:57 very end, we see a collection of shots
15:59 around the world where every human on
16:02 earth has dropped dead while the bees
16:04 live on. And over these visuals, we hear
16:07 Marina Dietrich's cover of Pete Seager's
16:10 Where Have All the Flowers Gone? with
16:12 powerful lyrics about the death of
16:14 flowers picked by young girls who grew
16:16 older to marry grown men who were later
16:18 recruited into the army and eventually
16:20 killed in wars and then buried in
16:23 cemeteries that once again grow those
16:26 flowers picked by the next generation of
16:28 young girls. A song that effortlessly
16:31 captures the ongoing cycle of life,
16:33 growth, death, routine, tragedy, and
16:37 regret with the perfect final line. When
16:39 will they ever learn? All right, this my
16:41 analysis. It's always fun to discuss a
16:43 Yosh movie and I'm super eager to hear
16:45 your thoughts on a movie because I know
16:47 the ideas are endless. So, any
16:48 questions, let me know below. Thank you
