Yorgos Lanthimos’s "Bugonia" is a Macabre Masterpiece of Paranoia

Yorgos Lanthimos, one of the 21st century's most distinctive and audacious filmmakers, returns with a work of bracing intensity: Bugonia. A chillingly funny, absurdist black comedy, the film is an English-language remake of Jang Joon-hwan's 2003 South Korean cult classic, Save the Green Planet!

The plot centers on the kidnapping of Michelle Fuller (a chillingly precise Emma Stone), the high-powered CEO of a major pharmaceutical company, Auxolith. Her captor is Teddy Gatz (Jesse Plemons), a conspiracy-obsessed beekeeper, who, along with his neurodivergent cousin Don (Aidan Delbis), is convinced that Michelle is not a human, but an alien from the Andromeda galaxy intent on destroying Earth. Held captive in a filthy basement, Michelle is subjected to increasingly bizarre interrogation tactics—including having her head shaved to prevent her from communicating with her mothership—in a frantic countdown to a looming lunar eclipse, the supposed window for the alien invasion.

The film serves as the fourth collaboration between Lanthimos and Oscar-winner Stone, who also serves as a producer alongside powerhouses like Ari Aster and Ed Guiney. The darkly satirical screenplay was adapted by Will Tracy (The Menu), who received a Screenwriter Award for his work at the Montclair Film Festival. The title itself is a reference to an ancient ritualistic belief that bees could spontaneously generate from the carcass of a dead ox, a thematic metaphor for the decay and strange rebirth at the film's core.

The film’s undisputed strength lies in its central performances, which are a masterclass in psychological tension. Jesse Plemons delivers a career-defining turn as the sweaty, fanatical conspiracy theorist Teddy. His performance is impossibly compassionate, skillfully navigating the tightrope between internet-induced autohypnosis and genuine existential crisis.

Emma Stone's portrayal of Michelle Fuller is a remarkable departure from her recent work. Where her Bella Baxter was defined by an almost monolithic curiosity, her Michelle is a lethally cold and heartless CEO whose composure slowly erodes under duress. Stone's nuanced performance embodies the visual language of the persecuted, even as Lanthimos uses this imagery to challenge the audience on who the true monster might be: the corporate titan who caused Teddy's family trauma, or the madman who tortures her.

The emotional anchor is Aidan Delbis as Don. His empathetic presence, portraying a neurodivergent character, grounds the film's wilder notions, providing an insufficiently tempering force to Teddy’s rage and forming the core of the film’s emotional heft.

The film's power lies in its trenchant social commentary. Lanthimos uses the absurd plot as a brutal, timely critique of contemporary society, exploring themes of conspiracy theories, corporate greed, and the digital echo chambers that fuel extremism.

The film's aesthetic is as demanding as its narrative. Lanthimos, collaborating with cinematographer Robbie Ryan, made the highly technical choice to shoot approximately 95% of Bugonia using VistaVision. This vintage, large-format 35mm film stock, which runs horizontally through the camera, yields an intensely detailed and "lush" image.

This format choice was driven by the artistic need to treat every close-up of the actors as a meticulously captured portrait photograph. Given that the psychological conflict largely unfolds in the single, cramped basement set (which accounts for a significant portion of the running time), this high-definition intimacy amplifies the intensity and claustrophobia. Ryan masterfully utilizes the format's depth and detail to create a stark visual contrast between the "ramshackle" environment of the cousins and the "cool, otherworldly sterility" of Michelle's corporate life, contributing greatly to the pervasive sense of dread.

Lanthimos employs his customary stylistic trademarks: the unnerving intimacy of wide shots and fisheye lenses, and a clamorous, chaotic score by Jerskin Fendrix. Yet, Bugonia is comparatively "safer" or "more approachable" than his most elaborate previous works, relying on evocative basement lighting rather than sprawling, intricate aesthetics.

The film's ambition, however, hits a sharp divide in the final act. I find the decision to shift the tone and reveal the ultimate truth to be a narrative misstep, where the film careens into self-parody during a final 15 minutes awash in masturbatory nihilism. It badly muffs the ending by over-explaining what should have remained an ambiguous thought experiment. Conversely, I must acknowledge that the globally traumatized finale is an unforgettable sequence—a wonderful montage—that forces a complete re-evaluation of the entire preceding film, cementing Lanthimos's reputation for macabre confrontation.

Ultimately, Bugonia is a spiny, prickly, and fiercely angry picture—mad at the world and mad at humanity—but one that confirms Lanthimos's status as a master of the unsettling, even if its ambition occasionally stings.

Bugonia held its world premiere in the main competition of the 82nd Venice International Film Festival on August 28, 2025, and was released in the United States on October 24, 2025, distributed by Focus Features.