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One of my favorite filmmakers is Terry Gilliam. My fascination with his work began when my parents took me to see Time Bandits, a film that by modern thinking shouldn’t have been a successful family film but somehow was at the time. Of course, I didn’t know who made it from Adam, but when I heard a new film from the director of Time Bandits was coming out, called Brazil, I knew I had to see it.I had to wait until its pay-cable premiere, and I was much too young to really “get” most of it, but the visuals were entrancing, and I thought the bit where De Niro fills the guys’ suits with poop was hilarious. As I further learned more about him—his being an American, a member of Monty Python, etc.—his career fascinated me, especially the fact that I absolutely loved The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and it bombed with the general public.I had known for a while that some of my entertainment tastes ran askew of the norm, but that really cemented it for me. I realized that Gilliam was the kind of storyteller that just told stories that entertained him, and if they entertained anyone else, no matter how few or many, then great. As I sought to be a storyteller, I found myself gradually ending up with the same mindset.As Gilliam’s star waned—and these days I do find myself having to separate Art from Artist in regard to him—I noticed a kind of successor making his mark on film: Yorgos Lanthimos. He, too, seems to tell stories that entertain him, in equally fantastic or outright odd ways, and if they hit, then great. Just look at the similarities between Munchausen and Poor Things.Lanthimos’ latest in his Gilliam-esque oeuvre is Bugonia.Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone) is the CEO of Auxolith, a major player in the pharmaceutical world. She is very Type-A and is having to currently navigate in a corporate structure that requires a bit of a softer touch, something that’s a bit difficult for her.Teddy Gatz (Jesse Plemons) and his cousin Don (Aidan Delbis) live on the opposite end of the wealth spectrum from Michelle. Teddy works in an Auxolith packing facility. He also has come to believe that aliens from Andromeda have come to Earth in order to destroy it, and that Michelle is herself one of these visitors.Teddy has convinced Don of these beliefs. Together, the cousins hatch a plan to kidnap Michelle and force her to get them an audience with the Andromedan Emperor so they can try to negotiate the withdrawal of their race from our planet. This has to be done within four days, before the lunar eclipse.Based on the South Korean film Save the Green Planet, Bugonia is an excellently executed “are they/aren’t they” absurdist dark comedy laced with plenty of societal commentary that grounds it in something akin to reality. Looking at it through the Gilliam Lens, think of it as Brazil by way of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, but with way less drugs and alcohol.Though brought on to the project after Jang Joon-hwan, the director of the original, had to drop out, Lanthimos has made this film all his own. The same way it does in his film The Favourite, the humor comes from a real place, yet it feels very unreal, while the drama does the same, kind of the way it does in his film The Killing of a Sacred Deer.This being essentially a three-person film, the performances better be top tier. Well, nobody can deliver this within the confines of a Lanthimos film better than Stone. She plays things tight, with her character knowing when it’s appropriate to play along with her kidnappers and when to get antagonistic.Plemons shows a side I don’t think I’ve seen before from him before, a kind of unhinged, twitchy character who you want to sympathize with, but you’re also afraid that he could blow at any second. Newcomer Delbis is on the autism spectrum in real life—a member of The Miracle Project, an inclusive arts program in Los Angeles—and he brings the humanity to the film, the generally dismissed voice of reason in this unreasonable universe.Like with Gilliam, Lanthimos’ films aren’t always for everyone, and Bugonia is no exception. Just ask the members of my audience who never once laughed. Though, also as with Gilliam, I say give the film a chance. You never know if you might like it, or not.Also, after you’ve seen Bugonia, look up the meaning of the title. It will make a lot more sense once you’ve experienced the film.