Movie Review: Bugonia

There was a time when a character who believed that the CEO of a major pharmaceutical corporation was in fact an extraterrestrial bent on exterminating honeybees to enslave humanity would be seen as purely comedic. Sadly, as conspiracy minded thinking has come to dominate much of modern society, these sorts of people can’t be so quickly dismissed, and their behavior takes on a more sinister, frightening tone. That is exactly what happens in director Yorgos Lanthimos’ (The Lobster, The Favourite, Poor Things) latest, genre-blending movie. Based on South Korea’s 2003 cult hit Save the Green Planet and scripted by Will Tracy (Succession, The Menu), it may very well be his craziest movie yet and, despite it’s relatively downbeat messaging, one of his most entertaining.

The main character in question is Teddy Gatz (Jesse Plemons) whose life has been marked by a series of tragic events that have led to him living in his family home with his autistic cousin Don (Aidan Delbis). Battling depression and loneliness, he spends far too much time lurking in the darkest corners of the internet, which has led him to believe that Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone)—CEO of Auxolith, the company where he works in the shipping department—is in fact an alien from Andromeda.

Determined to thwart her supposed plan to enslave humanity, Teddy and Don abduct Michelle and imprison her in their basement. They demand she confess her true identity and promise to accompany them to meet her leader during the next lunar eclipse, when Teddy believes the alien mothership can approach Earth undetected. Unsurprisingly, Michelle refuses to validate their delusions, but the cousins press on as the eclipse draws near, convinced that humanity’s fate hangs in the balance.

It’s an intriguing concept that sets the stage for a clash of two dangerously destructive archetypes: a lonely, radicalized man consumed by paranoia, and a ruthless CEO whose pursuit of profit eclipses empathy. The only good person here is Don, whose naive innocence and affection for his cousin have allowed him to be pulled along into circumstances that he struggles to accept, portrayed with quiet poignancy by Delbis. Teddy may not have always been bad, but his worldview has become so deranged that he has become objectively unsafe to be around. This dichotomy between the version of Teddy that believes he is indeed a good person and the version of him that is simmering with rage in search of a target is handled masterfully by Plemons, giving a career-defining performance. Stone matches him beat for beat as Fuller, a woman who likes to be in control of her circumstances at all times and is convinced of her ability to talk herself out of the danger she finds herself in, while gradually realizing just how volatile—and perilous—her captor truly is.

As usual for a Lanthimos project, Bugonia is always meticulously and artfully staged and shot, never looking like anything less than a work of art. Cinematographer Robbie Ryan, who has worked with the director since 2018’s The Favourite continues to be the perfect collaborator, helping to define and convey a signature style. English composer Jerskin Fendrix returns for a third consecutive collaboration with a suitably dramatic and frequently stunning score.

The script goes in some wild directions, keeping audiences unfamiliar with the original film on their toes as it heads towards a stunner of a conclusion. A vein of pitch-black humor runs throughout, tempering the film’s bleak worldview and underscoring its critique of a society plagued by greed, disinformation, and complacency. The result is a work that is both thrilling and thought-provoking, lingering long after the credits roll. Bugonia stings—and refuses to let go. ★★★★★