I wanted to say I was pleasantly surprised to see such an original movie coming out of Hollywood. But I’ve just found out it’s an adaptation of a South Korean movie. Leave it to the Asians to actually create daring fiction.

Anyway, this was good. A head-to-head between Jesse Plemons, whom I’ve liked in everything he’s done, and Emma Stone, whom I’m not particularly enthusiastic about but who’s good at her craft. Emma plays a high-ranking executive of a company involved in shady pharmaceutical stuff. Jesse Plemons plays a schizotypal, traumatized dude out in the sticks whose mother was injured somehow by said pharmaceutical company. But Jesse’s character has figured out that behind that mundane, vague corporate malfeasance is actually an alien plot to enslave mankind. Along with Jesse’s retarded cousin, they decide to kidnap Emma Stone’s character so she’ll transport them to the mothership and allow Jesse to negotiate for the sovereignty of Earth.

That’s as much as you need to know. In fact, that’s likely more than you needed to know to get into this movie. If you’re into weird stuff, watch it. It’s not the usual Hollywood garbage.

The peculiar script is a highlight. It allows compelling negotiations between Jesse’s delusional character and Emma’s, a cunning executive who finds herself under someone else’s control. Jesse’s and Emma’s acting are fantastic. Unfortunately, the third main character is Jesse’s retarded cousin, who seems out of place in every scene against these two powerhouses. I understand why the plot needed him (otherwise Jesse would have been sounding off necessary plot elements against the walls), but I think the movie would have been tighter without that character in it.

I recommend this movie. So much shit out there, you have to point out the ones that do something.