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Given the sprawling technical achievements director Yorgos Lanthimos' movies tend to be, it's a surprise how fast he can put out a new release. Lanthimos began making shorts and music videos in the late 90s and shifted to feature filmmaking in the early 2000s. He had some films garner attention early on ("Dogtooth" and "Alps") but 2016's "The Lobster" was his first movie to be seen in a bigger way. After "The Favourite" became an Oscar player in 2018, Lanthimos became a director that actors wanted to work with, especially his frequent collaborator Emma Stone, who reteams with him for his latest film "Bugonia."

The movie begins with Teddy (Jesse Plemmons, reteaming with Lanthimos after last year's "Kinds of Kindness") tending to his bees, while delivering a metaphor that is obvious and sets the tone for the entire movie. His worker-bee character is juxtaposed against queen bee Michelle (Stone), a well-known CEO of a biomedical company. Teddy has recruited his tagalong cousin Donny (Aidan Delbis) to kidnap Michelle, because Teddy is convinced she's an alien masquerading as a human to destroy the planet.

The rest of "Bugonia" must be seen to be believed.

While "Bugonia" has Lanthimos' signature piercing black humor running through it, it feels like a new kind of movie for him. Of his recent run, "The Favourite" and "Poor Things" upended the notion of how a period piece can move and act: the elegant costumes and production design may say Masterpiece Theater, but the dialogue and actions of the characters are the complete opposite. "Kinds of Kindness" was an unsuccessful anthology movie that felt like an excuse for him and Stone to collaborate together again. "Bugonia" is his commentary piece, addressing the American predilection for conspiracy theories and distrust in the most powerful among us. The depths Teddy goes to in pleading his case that Michelle is from another planet is scary and may seem ludicrous on screen, but it feels in keeping with where the world is today.

One of the great partnerships in modern filmmaking has been between Lanthimos and Stone. When they first collaborated on "The Favourite," at that point in her career, Stone's performance there could have been deemed her best. Their next outing, "Poor Things" became Stone's finest achievement as a performer before the movie had even concluded. The physicality of the performance and the character's mental evolution required Stone to act in several different registers. It's a stunning performance, and was worthy of giving Stone a second Academy Award for Best Actress only seven years after her win for "La La Land."

Even so, and as expectedly great as Stone is in "Bugonia," the movie belongs to the fierce and frightening intensity that Plemmons brings to his role. There's a danger-laced sadness to his performance, which makes for an unpredictable combination. From the moment the movie opens Teddy isn't well, and once his conspiracy beliefs become known, Plemmons' objective as the actor is to make the audience believe that Teddy thinks Michelle is an alien. As conspiracy theorists continue to rise online and in different media outlets, it's not too far-fetched to believe that someone like Teddy is out there in the world, and Plemmons' performance makes Teddy feel shatteringly real for two hours.

Lanthimos' particular brand of auteurism continues to grow in popularity, especially after the more mainstream success of "The Favourite" and "Poor Things." The goodwill he has built in this season of his career is likely to put more eyes on a strange film like "Bugonia" than may be expected, and he continually rewards his viewers for daring to be on his distinct wavelength. The movie's build-up is a bit hindered with how he and screenwriter Will Tracy end the movie; they take "Bugonia" somewhere completely outlandish, to the point that it almost feels like too safe of an ending. Regardless, there is no filmmaker working in the key of Lanthimos, which makes "Bugonia" worth the trip.