‘Bugonia’ – Review
Halloween has arrived, and if you’re looking for something freakish, fearless, and wholly, wildly original, then Yorgos Lanthimos’ Bugonia is the cinematic fever dream you need to throw yourself into. Strange, shocking, darkly hilarious and wickedly tense, Bugonia is an absurdist black comedy that twists itself into deeper and darker psychological territory with every passing scene — and it is impossible to look away from.
Two conspiracy-obsessed young men kidnap the high-powered CEO of a global corporation, convinced she is an alien sent to wipe out humanity.
When it comes to original filmmakers, they don’t get more bold, brazen, or beautifully bizarre than Yorgos Lanthimos. Known for The Favourite, Poor Things and The Killing of a Sacred Deer, he is a filmmaker who not only breaks the rules, he grinds them down to dust. With Bugonia, adapted loosely from the South Korean cult film Save the Green Planet!, he takes its whimsical satire and injects it with volcanic tension, razor-edged humour, and a spiralling sense of paranoia that grows more unhinged with each minute.
And yes, this one gets weird.
Bugonia kicks into high gear almost immediately. Conspiracy zealot Teddy Gatz (Jesse Plemons, giving one of the most unrestrained performances of his career) and his neurodivergent cousin Don (Aidan Delbis in a breakout role) abduct Michelle Fuller, a fierce and calculating corporate CEO played with electric intensity by Emma Stone. They are certain, absolutely certain, that Michelle is not human. That she is, in fact, a disguised alien from the Andromeda system, sent to prepare Earth for annihilation.
What begins like a hostage thriller quickly mutates into something far stranger, a psychological warfare chamber drama where the balance of power swings violently between captor and captive. Teddy’s wild-eyed certainty clashes against Michelle’s steel trap mind, and the result is a manic, slippery, and constantly escalating dance of manipulation, delusion, and rage.
The question at the heart of Bugonia — is Michelle actually an alien? — becomes less important than the unraveling of the people asking it.
Emma Stone once again proves why she is one of the most compelling actors working today. As Michelle, she is sharp, precise, commandingm and more than capable of flipping the psychological script. Though tied down, she’s never powerless. She studies her captors, probes their insecurities, pokes at their vulnerabilities, and soon we see the cage shifting right back around Teddy and Don instead. It’s Stone’s fourth collaboration with Lanthimos and their trust shows, she dives in fearlessly.
Opposite her, Jesse Plemons delivers a performance that is explosive, unpredictable, and deeply unsettling. Teddy Gatz is a man who believes utterly, and Plemons plays him with twitching conviction and terrifying sincerity. He’s funny; until he isn’t. And when the cracks show… they shatter. Aidan Delbis as Don deserves massive praise; innocent, impressionable, heartbreakingly loyal and deeply tragic, he becomes the emotional hinge of the film, and he steals scenes outright.
Bugonia doesn’t just tell a story, it tightens one. Scene by scene, the tension builds. The humour gets uglier. The power play gets sharper. And the tone, absurd at first, slowly mutates into something darker, more frightening, more volatile. By the final act, the film has transformed into a surreal psychological meltdown that has to be seen to be believed.
Bugonia is best watched without pause, without interruption, and without expectations. It creeps under the skin, infects the mind, and rewards those who lean into the madness. It is unnerving, hilarious, shocking, and unashamedly strange, exactly the kind of cinema only Lanthimos could make.
Image: Universal Pictures
