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