About 40 years ago, a New York senator and lifelong politician named Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, \u201cEveryone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.\u201d It was as catchy then as now, with the phrase lingering still in the zeitgeist like a faded bumper stick tagline. Yet if the ongoing collapse of American democracy in the social media century proves anything, it\u2019s that, nope, folks actually do love choosing their own facts, figures, and when possible full-blown alternate realities to boot. It\u2019s a brave new world out there, and one that begs the perpetual riddle of our era: how do you converse with someone who sounds like they\u2019re from another planet?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At a glance, Yorgos Lanthimos\u2019 Bugonia<\/em>, which marks another pitch black satire from the Greek auteur with newfound shades of science fiction, appears to tackle this head-on via its morality play about a mentally unwell crank who kidnaps a pharmaceutical executive he is convinced is secretly an alien. How can Emma Stone<\/a>\u2019s high-powered CEO Michelle possibly<\/em> relate to this dirt poor, deranged employee who has been fed a steady diet of YouTube and reddit conspiracy theory algorithms for years?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\t\r\n\n\t\t