Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone do it again with “Bugonia,” a twisted black comedy based on the 2003 South Korean film “Save the Green Planet!” with a notable touch of “American life disturbed in 2025”. There’s a lot of talk here about online conspiracy rabbit holes, with one character, an unwashed and sickly young man, mentioning that he went through various toxic phases, starting with the alt-right and working his way down.
In some ways, “Bugonia” seems connected to two other 2025 films that seem to encapsulate our strange times: Ari Aster’s underrated “Eddington” and Paul Thomas Anderson’s masterful “One Battle After Another.” But while “Eddington” is something of a farce and Anderson’s film mixes hot politics with audience-pleasing thrills, Lanthimos’ film has an undeniable desperation designed to make audiences uncomfortable.
I’m not the biggest fan of Lanthimos. I didn’t fully agree with his work until “The Favourite”, mainly because I found his films too cruel. With “Bugonia”, this cruelty is there again, even if the atmosphere is lightened by a certain feeling of stupidity. Still, there are several moments in “Bugonia” that are so mean-spirited and mean-spirited that it left a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth. It doesn’t help that the film often seems scattered, as if Will Tracy’s screenplay doesn’t really know what it’s trying to say.
Bugonia features a trio of solid performances and a few unexpected twists
“Bugonia” is ultimately bolstered by a trio of strong performances and a few twists and turns that make us reconsider everything we’ve been through. Sick people will love this one, and I say that with love. The final moments (which I won’t dare spoil) are so deliciously morbid that I was almost ready to forget my qualms.
Stone plays Michelle Fuller, the high-powered, high-powered SEO at a pharmaceutical company (we’re told she’s supposed to be 45, a questionable idea that plays into a certain sense of mystery surrounding the character). Michelle lives in wealth and isolation, and we’re introduced to her going about her business, telling an assistant that it’s okay if the employees want to go home at 5:30… unless they have work to do, then they should definitely stay.
While Michelle’s world consists of sterile white environments and floor-to-ceiling glass, we also delve into the more dilapidated lives of Teddy (Jesse Plemons) and his cousin Don (Aidan Delbis), who prepare Teddy’s secluded country home. Lanthimos unsubtly contrasts the two different worlds the characters live in: while Michelle’s environments and clothes are spotless and clean, Teddy (who looks like he hasn’t had a shower in over a month) and Don practically exist in squalor.
Bugonia laughs nauseatingly
Both of these worlds collapse when Teddy and Don kidnap Michelle from her home. But they did not kidnap this rich woman for ransom; instead, Teddy is convinced that Michelle is an alien from the planet Andromeda. He claims to have conducted extensive research (which involved watching YouTube videos, of course) and is 100% convinced that Michelle is a humanoid alien part of a race that has secretly enslaved humanity and is slowly killing us by making life and the world as a whole more and more terrible, especially for working class people like Teddy.
The abduction is played for nauseated laughs, as Teddy’s behavior and ideas seem inherently ridiculous (for example: he asks Don to shave Michelle’s hair, because he thinks aliens use their hair to communicate with each other). Teddy wants to use Michelle to negotiate with the aliens and save the human race in the process, while Michelle continues to insist that Teddy is delusional and that she is obviously not an alien. From there, “Bugonia” almost becomes one long interrogation, with Teddy trying to break Michelle down and Michelle trying to reason with her captors.
Bugonia is a memorable 2025 film, but a lesser work by Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone
While there isn’t much meat on these bones (at least not until the film nears a blood-soaked finale), “Bugonia” is elevated by its competent casting. Stone, who did some of her best work with Lanthimos, masterfully juggles a tricky role – we sympathize with Michelle because she’s been kidnapped, but we can also tell that she’s a deeply flawed person without really learning much about her, and that’s due to the icy way Stone plays her. Stone’s performance is only bolstered by Plemons, who is the real star here, playing Teddy as a damaged man with a troubled past – surreal black-and-white flashbacks give us insight into his relationship with his sickly mother, played by Alicia Silverstone.
Much of “Bugonia” is a two-person game with Stone and Plemons going at it, engaging in a twisted battle of wits as these two characters try to understand each other. Adding to the dynamic is a memorable turn from Delbis as Don. Delbis is an autistic actor playing an autistic character, and while such an idea could lead to something potentially exploitative, the character becomes a sort of moral center, the most sympathetic figure here.
Featuring a deliberately chaotic and thunderous musical score by Jerskin Fendrik, “Bugonia” often seems too brazen for its own good – as if Lanthimos and company are cynically laughing at our expense. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, but I’m not entirely sure it contributes to the overall message of the film – assuming it has a message at all. Ultimately, “Bugonia” seems destined to be considered one of the “lesser” collaborations between Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone while also being one of the most memorable films of 2025. It’s sick and twisted enough to stay with you, and the final moments are particularly delicious (in a dark way). I just wish it all added up a little more.
/Film rating: 7 out of 10
“Bugonia” hits theaters on October 24, 2025.
