Our second feature is
a true skin crawler of a film,
BUG turns from a character study
to a portrait of paranoid delusion
and the power of belief.
Based on a play of the same name,
BUG is the story of Agnes White (Ashley Judd),
an aimless waitress living in a cheap motel in rural America
who gets involved with a drifter named Peter Evans (Michael Shannon)
who says he was recently discharged by the Army.
Their mutual loneliness drawing them to each other
like moths to flame.
Agnes has an abusive ex-husband
(played by Harry Connick Jr.)
who she believes is calling her and remaining silent
on the other end of the line.
He has recently gotten out of jail.
All the more reason to cling to her new man.
Soon, we learn of Peter’s belief that he has been
infested by biological experiments by the government
and that her phone calls were all about him, not her ex. He is convinced there are tiny bugs
living and breeding in his body.
And spreading to her...
The performances are key here as we descend with these two down the rabbit hole of their own delusions (or are they?) as the movie builds to a dramatic, climactic conclusion.
It is this film that made me take notice for the first time, of Michael Shannon. And I have looked forward to each of his performances since. He is brilliantly maddening as he leads Ashley Judd’s naive Agnes down the path to her own destruction.
Written by Tracy Letts and directed by William Friedkin, the trailer is a bit misleading…
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