REVIEW: ‘Bugonia’ Is Yorgos Lanthimos’ Most Accessible Movie Yet, With A Hint Of Absurdity
- Christopher Mills
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
This review contains minor spoilers for 'Bugonia.'
Every director has their favourite actor, whom they can rely on to return and play a role in their next movie. Ryan Coogler has Michael B. Jordan. Martin Scorsese has Leonardo DiCaprio. Quentin Tarantino has Samuel L. Jackson, and Sofia Coppola has Kirsten Dunst. For Yorgos Lanthimos, his favourite actor to work with is Emma Stone, with Bugonia being their fourth collaboration and their third in a row, with Kinds of Kindness having been released in 2024 and Poor Things in 2023. They've become a power dynamic and Emma Stone once again gives a phenomenal performance in Bugonia that's convincing, vulnerable and layered with her tone, allowing for the story to work and feel believable.
Unlike Kinds of Kindness, which felt experimental with its storytelling and structure, or Poor Things, which was overall an uncomfortable story that was hard to digest, Bugonia is a film that's more accessible for general audiences, as it lays down a simplistic story that may feel relatable to some but also doesn't shy away from the absurdity that Lanthimos usually brings to his movies.
Bugonia follows Teddy (Jesse Plemons) and his cousin Don (Aidan Delbis) who are paranoid and led to believe that extraterrestrial beings called Andromedans hide on Earth, waiting to destroy it. To prove this, they kidnap CEO Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone), who they believe is from the Andromedan race. It's a plot that's quite ridiculous when just reading it for what it is, but Will Tracy does such a great job of building the tension surrounding the mystery of whether or not Teddy and Don are correct in their hunch or if they're just maniacs who have had their strings pulled the entire time by conspiracy theories online.
The movie opens up on Teddy's discussions on bees, the dangers they face in society and also how they work collaboratively to achieve their goals. It cuts between Teddy and Don training to kidnap their victim (who they strongly believe to be an alien) and Michelle, who's just going about her normal day, training and listening to Chappell Roan while heading to work. We quickly witness the kidnapping of Michelle, which at first Teddy and Don hysterically struggle with but eventually succeed in catching her. Tracy plays around throughout the entire movie with whether Michelle is an alien or human, and there's not a single moment in the film where you'll be satisfied with your guess.
The dialogue provided to Emma Stone and her deliverance of the lines will keep you guessing until the very end on the reality of her situation. It's the structure of the script that helps to keep this movie entertaining as we witness the lengths that Teddy and Dom go through to prove she's an alien. We witness them shave her hair, as it could be used as a way of communicating to the mothership that's above Earth. Teddy also continuously interrogates and tortures her in hopes that she'll break and finally confess.
As outrageous as the story is, it would've been a letdown if there wasn't more to Teddy's motive to find an alien because simply being radicalised by conspiracy theories isn't enough. We live in a world where people come up with conspiracies all the time and spread them online. We have people who believe that the Earth is flat (flat Earthers may enjoy this movie) and people who believe that the COVID vaccine led to irrational side effects. We also have people just like Teddy and Don who believe that aliens exist and are among us. The list goes on and on. What Bugonia focuses on is the poor treatment that corporations, especially pharmaceutical ones, put their clients through, with Teddy's mom unfortunately being a victim of Michelle's testing, which has kept her hospitalised.
Tracy puts into question who's really the bad guy in the movie: is it the people who are torturing this woman on the basis that she may be an alien, or is it the woman who makes millions or billions of dollars, sacrificing the working class to grow their power and wealth? Bugonia doesn't offer much in terms of this messaging and instead decides to keep its focus on Teddy and Don, who may possibly be misled by the conspiracies they've seen online and their own hunches.
The performances of Bugonia sell this movie, as Emma Stone uses a soothing but also commanding tone with Teddy and Don, which leads you to believe that she has entire control of the situation, just as a greedy and maniacal CEO would at their job. It's one of her best roles, as the entire believability of the movie rests on her shoulders. She commands the entire screen with ease, switching up her tones to get exactly what she needs from her captors and also the audience. Jesse Plemons is soon going to be entering Yorgos' club; after previously appearing in Kinds of Kindness, he returns to give a performance that's frightening, psychotic and completely unhinged.
Similarly to Michelle, Teddy has a way with words and is able to influence his impressionable cousin, Don, who is autistic. He teaches him everything that he needs to know about the Andromedans and how to prepare himself, taking his time to ensure that he understands and allowing for him to follow his own path. Aidan Delbis delivers a performance that's soft while also remaining terrifying in his role, as he still holds as much power as Teddy in regard to Michelle but, unlike Teddy, sympathises with the torture she goes through.
The last fifteen minutes of the movie are chaotic and unpredictable, with Lanthimos letting it all loose and allowing for Bugonia to truly feel like one of his own, despite it being a remake of the 2003 South Korean film, Save the Green Planet!. It's a wild tonal shift from the rest of the movie, but fans of Lanthimos can expect to see something outrageous at the end, while newcomers to the director may either be left unsatisfied with how Bugonia decides to conclude or thrilled at its execution.
Bugonia is without a doubt Yorgos Lanthimos' most accessible movie yet, with performances that elevate Will Tracy's script, cinematography from frequent collaborator Robbie Ryan, who brings the discomfort to the screen with awkward close-ups, and a score that also heightens the movie as it deceives audiences on which characters to trust. It has several messages that it tries to bring up, but Tracy and Lanthimos make it clear that they're not trying to make Bugonia seem bigger than it already is; all they simply want to do is make a movie about conspiracy theorists who act out on their theory. If that is enough to sell you, then this movie will be worth the watch, but if you're looking for something more, then this might not be the Lanthimos film for you.
Rating: ★★★★☆
About Bugonia
Premiere Date:Â October 24, 2025
Director:Â Yorgos Lanthimos
Producers: Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe,Yorgos Lanthimos, Emma Stone, Ari Aster, Lars Knudsen, Miky Lee
Writer: Will Tracy
Cast:Â Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Aidan Delbis, Stavros Halkias, Alicia Silverstone
Synopsis: Two conspiracy-obsessed young men kidnap the high-powered CEO of a major company, convinced that she is an alien intent on destroying planet Earth.