A Big Pharma executive is kidnapped by conspiracy theorists who believe her to be an alien in the newest film from Yorgos Lanthimos.
Yorgos Lanthimos has become something of a workaholic since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, having produced and directed three feature films in a three-year span, including the surreal fantasy epic Poor Things in 2023 and the three-hour comic anthology Kinds of Kindness in 2024. The third film in the trio is this year’s Bugonia which happens to be a remake of the 2003 South Korean science fiction-comedy Save The Green Planet!, and Lanthimos’ take on the Jang Joon-hwan film is a darkly funny and frightening tale about the divisions in our society between social classes and political parties driven by the Greek filmmaker’s signature aesthetic and remarkable performances from Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons.
Bugonia follows Teddy Gatz (Jesse Plemons), a beekeeper so mind-numbingly obsessed with conspiracy theories that he recruits his awkward cousin Don (Aidan Delbis) into assisting him in a plot to kidnap Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone), the CEO of a major pharmaceutical company because they believe her to be an alien from the Andromeda galaxy, referred from here on out as an ‘Andromedan’.
One struggle, tranquilizer shot and shaved head later, Michelle is firmly within the confines of Teddy’s basement, with her captor and Don intent on interrogating her about what the “Andromedan species” has planned for humanity and how they can get on her “mothership” on the night of the next lunar eclipse. Like any measured human being, Michelle has no idea what they’re accusing her of, and has to resort to sarcasm and quick wits in order to escape captivity, lest she endure tortures that grow in horror the longer her imprisonment lasts.
To delve into the motivations behind Teddy’s bizarre beliefs or describe exactly what Michelle goes through risks venturing into spoiler territory, but Bugonia is a fascinating watch for its runtime thanks to the subversive screenplay. Writer Will Tracy is known for dark, dramatic satires such as The Menu and his work on Succession, and sets the stage for Teddy and Don’s revolution against the capitalist system well, with the beekeeper delivering a chilling monologue about the worker bees’ relationship to the queen bee until their inevitable mutiny at the film’s beginning. The haunting mood doesn’t end there, as part of the cousins’ preparation for their endeavor involves them chemically castrating themselves to keep the Andromedans from psychically controlling their nervous systems, in a brief display of hivemind mentality.
But those are juxtaposed with hilarious moments of black humor, like when Michelle resorts to playing along with Teddy’s belief in her as an alien in order to find an avenue of escape, as well as the bizarre absurdity of the two conspirators covering Michelle with antihistamine cream to keep her from contacting her mothership. The words on Tracy’s pages are also brought to life in an overly glossy world by Lanthimos’ beguiling direction throughout Bugonia. Visual choices like oversaturated colors and tracking shots that dolly backward to keep characters in center frame add a very polished quality to every location that suggests Michelle’s life in big pharma is too perfect, as the heightened palette complements the moody shadows in every room of Teddy’s house, making each scene set there all the more unsettling to watch.
Musician Jerskin Fendrix has become a frequent collaborator with Lanthimos since Poor Things, and his work in Bugonia has the orchestral grandeur of the former film’s musical score, albeit with a more sinister overtone to emphasize the dark gravity of Teddy’s mission and how far gone he’s become from reality. Jesse Plemons wears the beekeeper’s extreme convictions with quiet intensity on his face throughout his performance, using monotone line delivery that makes his ignorance even more funny during comedic moments, but more frightening in the terrifying instances, with Emma Stone’s equally great acting sees her searching internally for her humanity, even as she continues to speak with corporate jargon while in confinement.
All that is what audiences expect from the small cast and Lanthimos as well as his collaborators in a film like Bugonia. That said, upon first watch, viewers will be skeptical that what they’re watching says anything new about its subject matter; we all know billionaire executives care more about their revenue than a diverse workplace, and that conspiracy theorists are a genuine danger to the public at large.
But THEN, in true Yorgos fashion, the third act pivots the film toward bizarre territory with the cinematic equivalent of toppling over a chess table, one that leaves some moviegoers needing a second viewing to comprehend what they’ve witnessed. The work is worth doing, however, because Lanthimos’ latest is a delightfully dark comedy about how divided we are as a society, how far away we are to uniting again, and what’s at stake for us in the near future if we don’t. Audiences will have a lot of important, timely ideas to chew on after this film’s conclusion, and that’s why moviegoers should see Bugonia.