Publication Date: 11-04-2025

Bugonia (2025) review

Dir. Yorgos Lanthimos

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★★

I went into Bugonia knowing almost nothing about it, the same way I experienced Yorgos Lanthimos’ previous two features, Poor Things and Kinds of Kindness. I’ve come to learn this is the best way to experience movies by the Greek auteur, who has proven himself to be a workhorse, releasing three movies over the last three years.

Lanthimos’ films are characterized by black comedy, deadpan dialog — seemingly delivered by aliens trying to pose as humans — asinine premises, confined to their own worlds, and absurdism to a level designed to unsettle. His style is wonderfully weird, but his earliest efforts lack a well-defined access point, which results in an alienating endeavor that neither feels interesting nor as humorous as it should be.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that my favorite Lanthimos films — Poor Things and now Bugonia — are adaptations. They allow Lanthimos not merely an entry point, but a road map of a strange world, and essentially come with established guardrails so plot developments don’t become irritatingly inane, ala Kinds of Kindness. Adapted from the South Korean film Save the Green Planet! from Jang Joon-hwan, Lanthimos’ latest gives us a sci-fi premise with the scope of Steven Spielberg or J.J. Abrams albeit with more bloodshed and demented developments.

Bugonia drops us in on the lonely life of Teddy (Jesse Plemons), a dirty, sweaty shut-in, who rides around town on his bicycle and lives with his cousin, Don (Aidan Delbis in a very promising debut). Their home would be quaintly domestic if it weren’t for the clutter and tinfoil covering the windows. Part-time beekeepers and full-time conspiracists, the two men (mainly Teddy) are consumed by the idea that Andromedans — an alien race from a nearby Milky Way galaxy — are the real rulers of planet Earth, hellbent on destroying structure and community.

Drawing Teddy’s ire and wrath is Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone), the CEO Of a pharmaceutical corporation known as Auxolith. Michelle is the understandable target. She’s thin and eloquent, and spends her days gulping down vitamins, exuding girlboss energy, and singing along to Chappell Roan’s “Good Luck Babe” on her drive home. In a sloppy yet successful move, Teddy and Don kidnap Michelle and chain her to a cot in their basement, convinced that if they can get her to confess to being an alien, with intentions of destroying the human race, they will foil the Andromedan plot.

Because Lanthimos sticks to a repertoire of a familiar faces for his projects, you at least enter each one of his films knowing you’re going to witness greatness from the performers. Jesse Plemons is unsurprisingly excellent, this time playing a grimy greaseball consumed by his own fading grip on reality. His staccato emotional track, which can flip from calm and measured to loud and reactionary on a dime feels especially lived-in given the incendiary nature of human beings when confronted with their beliefs not their own. Emma Stone further proves that Lanthimos brings out the best in her on multiple levels. Now on her fourth collaboration with the 52-year-old Greek filmmaker, Stone thrusts herself into another physical performance that requires her to have a shaved head, take multiple face and body blows, and recite impeccably crafted monologues (thanks to writer Will Tracy).

Stone has a handful of terrific moments in Bugonia, but my favorite comes when her Michelle forces Teddy to confront his paranoid, internet-influenced delusions. The two take turns hurling long-winded insults at one another with Michelle asserting that Teddy lives in an echo chamber, unwilling to examine his own personal foibles. With that, supporting performances are sparse, but it’s always good to see Alicia Silverstone (even in a mostly comatose role) and Stavros Halkias, whose very demeanor and appearance never ceases to make me smile.

At this point, Lanthimos has mastered the art of jolting his audience awake, or even in another direction just when you assume you’ve got his pathway nailed down. Unlike some of Lanthimos’ earlier efforts, Bugonia — a Greek word for that refers to the ancient Mediterranean concept that bees spawn on the carcass of a dead animal — moves with tenacity, and gives you a rich payoff, in the form of a surprisingly emotional yet hilarious montage scored to Pete Seeger’s cover of the folk classic “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” (it’s not the Kingston Trio’s version, but it’ll do). The push-pull between Teddy’s conviction that Michelle is an alien and Michelle’s insistence that she is a victim (albeit a wealthy one, with her own flaws) presents both Tracy and Lanthimos with a dynamic that presents uncertainty and intrigue for the audience as they watch a movie unfold — one that’s both very funny and, I’m confident, will prove to be among Lanthimos’ best works for years to come.

My review of The Lobster (2015)
My review of The Killing of a Sacred Deer
My review of The Favourite (2018)
My review of Poor Things
My review of Kinds of Kindness

Starring: Jesse Plemons, Emma Stone, Aidan Delbis, Stavros Halkias, and Alicia Silverstone. Directed by: Yorgos Lanthimos.