She was like a shot of espresso—an expert on waking audiences up.

Emma Stone’s career is somewhat of a marvel. The two-time Oscar-winning actress and producer has had a prolific and incredibly successful career, both commercially and critically. She’s shown the world time and time again exactly what it means to have range as a performer, portraying anything from a bubbly young cavewoman to an intimidating, calculating CEO. 

Stone started out as a supporting actress in movies like Superbad, The House Bunny and Easy A, where her expressions, comedic timing and effortless delivery made her a standout performer. She became a major player to watch later in her career, when she came into more substantial roles in films such as The Help, The Amazing Spider-Man 1 and 2 and Crazy, Stupid, Love. 

After establishing herself as a supporting actress, co-starring in several critically acclaimed films and making her Broadway debut as Sally Knowles in Cabaret, Stone began to move further into the world of prestige films. Following her run in Cabaret, Stone was cast in La La Land, earning her an Oscar, a Golden Globe, a SAG award and a BAFTA for Best Actress. 

From here, it’s clear that her trajectory was pointed all the way to the top. In 2018, Stone starred in the satirical, absurdist, dark comedy film The Favourite—her first collaboration with Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos. This is the performance that truly set her apart from her contemporaries and proved her ability to breathe life into more complex characters. Her transformation into Abigail Hill found Stone playing an innocent and downtrodden young girl, who eventually charms her way into the aristocracy. Although Stone was back in her comedic wheelhouse, the audience watched her wholly become a cunning, yet vulnerable young woman whose life takes a series of twists and turns that eventually lead her into a life of ultimate opulence and emptiness—earning her a second Oscar nomination. 

Continuing her partnership with Lanthimos in 2022, Stone starred in the short film Bleat and the feature film Poor Things. Here, Stone once again gave a master class on physical comedy and absolute absurdism, playing a fearless character entirely liberated from the pressures of society. The performance was praised for its oddity and unabashed nature—something Stone has always excelled at. It is for this role that Stone won her second Academy Award and BAFTA for Best Actress. 

The latest collaboration between Stone and Lanthimos, Bugonia, might not be the most mind-blowing movie to hit the silver screen this past year, but it is by no means their worst work. The movie is vibrant and funny, the way Lanthimos’ dark comedies typically are. It’s a compelling and nuanced film disguised as a much simpler one. While you may go in expecting to know already how it ends, you’ll soon enough be wrapped up in a story twice as complex as it appears.

Bugonia, like much of the duo’s work, is compelling and confusing. A remake of the 2003 South Korean film Save the Green Planet!, the film follows a pair of cousins—Teddy and Don—who believe the CEO of a pharmaceutical conglomerate is a member of an evil alien species called Andromedans that has been sent to subjugate the people of Earth. 

In creating Bugonia, Lanthimos and Stone worked together to create a movie that felt strangely more believable than you would expect. In a world filled to the brim with AI, misinformation and constant propaganda, conspiracy theorists that border on murderous are not as uncommon as you would hope. 

Starring Stone, Jesse Plemons and Aidan Delbis, the audience is sucked into a story that never quite settles on one tone. Instead, it veers between satire, paranoia and violence as the audience watches the two leads try to out-maneuver each other—in a way that’s almost reminiscent of the old comic strip Spy Vs Spy. 

Stone plays Michelle, the CEO at the center of the plot, whose cool disposition makes her difficult to read. She is the image of a woman in control, her movements precise, her words carefully chosen and her demeanour detached. Plemons plays Teddy, the paranoid conspiracy theorist—and beekeeper—at the helm of Michelle’s abduction. His mother became comatose after participating in a clinical trial for a drug manufactured by Michelle’s company, and he becomes convinced that there is something much larger at play than anyone else has realized. Teddy convinces his cousin Don—played by Delbis—to help him capture Michelle so they can uncover the Andromedans’ plot and negotiate with their leader to save the human race.  

Critics have lauded both Stone and Plemons’ performance in the film, believing the pair to be at the top of their game. Their momentum is electric, equally commanding the audience’s attention like duelling tennis players aiming for a career grand slam. Their dialogue is witty, natural and guides the audience through a series of convoluted ups and downs as they try to figure out the seemingly inevitable plot twist. Stone and Plemons deliver throughout the film, carrying this precarious dynamic with them until the very end.

Unlike Stone’s previous roles in Lanthimos’ work, her performance as Michelle doesn’t rely on her physical comedy. Instead, she relies on her ability to convey emotion in the most controlled way possible—making Michelle the perfect suspect for the cousins’ conspiracy theory. Michelle is impossible to discern, leaving the audience in suspense as they consider the plausibility that she truly is a malignant alien or if she’s just an emotionless corporate shill. 

While Stone has shown the world time and time again that she is an adept physical performer, in this role she moves minutely, precisely and clinically. She does nothing to invite the audience’s empathy, giving only enough to keep the audience questioning what they’re seeing. She plays Michelle as an inaccessible symbol of power and wealth. The epitome of what the elite represent to those who are forced to look up to them. 

Stone’s performance as Michelle has once again solidified her place amongst the modern greats. She commands respect and demands attention. She lights up the screen and breathes life into even the dullest of moments. 

Scientifically, we call on reliability and validity to ensure our conclusions are correct and predict future patterns or outcomes. If we were to claim that Stone is an incredible actress and will one day be amongst the greats, her consistent performances across the span of her career, her accolades and recognition she has earned from her peers, critics and audiences alike would lead us to believe that it is a reasonable conclusion. 

It would not be a stretch to say that a long and fruitful career awaits Emma Stone, and that she has successfully carved her way into the spotlight.