The misanthropy of director Yorgos Lanthimos hits a wall in "Bugonia," his latest venture into gobsmacking unpleasantness, in which a pair of lowlifes kidnap a high-ranking CEO whom they suspect of being an alien.

Lanthimos is the visionary, off-kilter director of "The Favourite," "The Lobster" and "The Killing of a Sacred Deer," movies that explore the dark side of humankind and are spiked with a sick, stomach-churning sense of humor. "Bugonia" is his third movie in three years, following "Poor Things" and "Kinds of Kindness," which have represented a case of diminishing returns from the propulsive filmmaker. A break would do him well.

"Bugonia" might have been better suited as a chapter in "Kinds of Kindness," his 2024 triptych that also featured Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons, his princ

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