A double feature in ‘Die My Love’ and ‘Bugonia’

It was an Oscar-worthy double feature for cinephiles in the Philippines when “Die My Love” and “Bugonia” were released November 5 in cinemas.

“Die My Love” stars former young adult (YA) actors Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson, while “Bugonia” features Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons in lead roles — all of whom have potential for major acting nominations this awards season, particularly the female leads.

Die My Love: Cautionary tale on postpartum depression

Adapting the Spanish novel by Ariana Harwicz, Lawrence and Pattinson play Grace and Jackson, a couple who move from New York City to the countryside in Montana to seek a quieter life as they start a family.

Residing in the house previously owned by Jackson’s late uncle, Grace struggles to adjust. She suffers from postpartum depression after giving birth, and she is bored in their new, mundane life, which leads to increasingly concerning behavior in her endless desire to feel satisfaction.

“Die My Love” is a slow-burning psychological drama, more of a character piece that showcases the lengths someone would go just to feel something as a result of depression, which the characters in the film treat as an inconvenience, easily judging her for her actions.

It’s best to manage expectations when watching a slow burner like “Die My Love,” which has a serious plot that’s being mismarketed by the film’s local distributor as a romantic comedy based on a poster featuring the couple in happier moments.

Don’t expect a satisfying ending, as the film’s biggest flaw is perhaps in its final act, where the story seems to have an open-ended note regarding the future of Grace and Jackson’s relationship. The conclusion would have landed better if the final act hadn’t been so redundant and defeatist.

But if you have the patience to sit through two hours of chaos unfolding from Lawrence’s character, it’s worth seeing. It showcases her commitment to portraying Grace as a sympathetic, complex character as her actions slowly scale up to the eleventh. It’s a performance worth watching for when it comes to the Oscar race. Four stars out of five.

Bugonia: Conspiracy thriller for the post-truth era

A remake of the 2003 South Korean comedy “Save the Green Planet!,” “Bugonia” stars Stone as Michelle Fuller, a CEO of a pharmaceutical company who gets kidnapped by Teddy (Plemons) and his cousin Don (Aidan Delbis) after Teddy suspects her of being an alien planning to destroy Earth during the upcoming lunar eclipse.

So deep in belief that Michelle is an alien, Teddy and Don shave off her long hair and put cream all over her body so that she wouldn’t use them to contact her fellow aliens.

Over two hours, audiences are kept on edge, wondering whether Teddy might be right about his conspiracy or whether Michelle is as human as she claims to be. Viewers will also discover that Teddy’s tirade stems from his personal trauma.

This is a fitting film for our current post-truth climate, where people are more concerned with being right in their beliefs than questioning their logic and whether it makes sense. Director Yorgos Lanthimos and writer Will Tracy effectively use thriller and dark comedy elements to drive the film’s points forward.

It’s not a Lanthimos film without the actors going all-out in their performances. The tension between Stone and Plemons is the film’s biggest strength, as their antagonistic dynamic makes “Bugonia” worth seeing. It would be shocking if their names aren’t considered for potential Oscar nominations.

The film will be best remembered for its ending, which delivers a pointed social commentary on humanity and cleverly plays with audience expectations in ways that will shock them once the end credits roll. It’s a bizarre, amusing experience that moviegoers should expect in “Bugonia,” topped with talented leads worthy of awards consideration. Four stars out of five.