Bug

Before it completely goes off the rails in its final 20 minutes, Bug generally comes off as a slow-moving yet exceedingly well-acted drama concerning two damaged characters (Ashley Judd’s Agnes and Michael Shannon’s Peter) and their efforts to embark upon a tentative relationship. Judd’s mere presence ensures that the film initially boasts the feel of a typically introspective kitchen-sink indie, while Tracy Letts’ script, based on his own play, effectively delves into the increasingly fragile psyches of the two central characters. William Friedkin’s inventive directorial choices surely play a substantial role in Bug‘s early success, as the film never entirely possesses the stagy feel that one might’ve expected (which is no small feat, surely, given that the majority of the story transpires within a single hotel room). But there reaches a point at which Letts essentially throws logic and plausibility right out the window, as the scripter slowly-but-surely places an egregious emphasis on Peter’s deteriorating mental state (and, later, Agnes’). It’s consequently impossible to maintain even an ounce of interest in the characters’ plight, particularly as the pair take to screaming at imaginary insects and helicopters within their aluminum-foil draped hotel room, and the end result is a movie that’s almost entirely sabotaged by its head-scratcher of a third act.

** out of ****