FANTASTIC FEST 2025 REVIEW: Bugonia

By George & Josh Bate

Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos confirm that they are one of modern cinema’s great actor-director pairings in Bugonia, a mesmerizing, absurdly hilarious, and poignant filmmaking achievement that was one of the secret screenings at this year’s Fantastic Fest.

A remake of the 2003 South Korean film Save the Green Planet! by Jang Joon-hwan, Bugonia follows Teddy (Jesse Plemons), a young man and recreational beekeeper obsessed with conspiracy theories. In an effort to save the world from imminent destruction, Teddy teams up with his cousin Don (Aidan Delbis) to kidnap Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone), a prominent CEO who Teddy believes is secretly an alien.

For as wild as its premise suggests, Bugonia marks what is arguably Lanthimos’ most approachable and even mainstream outing. After the odd visual spectacle that was Poor Things, Lanthimos dials back the quirkiness in dialogue and style that his films are often characterized by. Make no mistake, Bugonia is still an odd film, but one that, in part due to its maddingly resonant story, feels surprisingly grounded.

The story sees Plemons’ conspiracy-obsessed Teddy and Stone’s kidnapped CEO Michelle engage in a psychological cat-and-mouse game that is as gripping as it is funny. Stone portrays a character of incredible calculation, someone who approaches even the craziest and most life-threatening of situations with calm and collection. Plemons, meanwhile, plays Teddy with both humorous and disturbing conviction in an awards-worthy performance. Teddy unwaveringly holds to a number of beliefs that even the most reality-warped people would find extreme. His journeys into the corners of YouTube and Reddit have birthed a belief that the world’s environmental and economic problems are engineered by an insidious, covert alien species, of which Stone’s CEO is a member of. The intricacies of his beliefs surrounding this conspiracy are fascinating and, while giving the film plenty of absurd laughs, also unsettle in just how committed he is to such clearly extreme beliefs.

The back-and-forth between Teddy and Michelle makes Bugonia as captivating a watch as it is. Their mental tug-of-war will likely mirror the experiences of many viewers, who find themselves arguing about a topic with someone lacking in even the slightest of cognitive flexibilities. The Keanu Reeves quote about not wanting to argue with people who think 2 + 2 = 5 resonates strongly here as the audience is given a front-row seat to an enthralling psychological battle with neither party having even the slightest of desires to move their opinion.

When their initial humor subsides, these arguments that encompass much of the film feel disturbingly of-the-moment. Lanthimos and screenwriter Will Tracy are less interested in delivering some profound message about conspiracy theorists and appear more interested in having fun playing with just how out-there some people’s beliefs are. Nonetheless, the filmmaker certainly holds a mirror up to modern society and online misinformation culture with a story that will undoubtedly initially generate great laughs before giving way to deeper contemplation.

Bugonia also invites the audience to engage in the debate at the center of its story. Teddy firmly believes Michelle is an alien, something she fervently denies. Lanthimos toys with the viewer with this mental game. Surely, Teddy isn’t correct and Michelle isn’t an alien…..right? The director deftly navigates this question, ensuring that, just when we are certain of an answer, a perfectly measured seed of doubt enters the fold.

Throughout this back-and-forth, layers of Teddy’s backstory are revealed, which turn him into more than just a conspiracy-obsessed nutjob. From the beginning, Teddy expresses kindness and even love toward his cousin Don, who appears to be intellectually impaired and/or neurodivergent in some way. Teddy cares greatly for Don, even going as far to say that he is doing all of this for him. There isn’t exactly a manipulative quality about this relationship as Teddy seems to genuinely care for Don. Their relationship gives Bugonia much-needed heart and emotion, elevating it beyond an absurdist comedy. As we learn more about Teddy’s motivations for kidnapping Michelle, further heartbreak and parallels to real life emerge that make Plemons’ character far more multidimensional than initially expected. 

In what could have easily gone awry, Bugonia’s ending sticks the landing spectacularly. It leaves the film on a disquieting, more contemplative note than the preceding array of humorous moments would suggest. Come the end, however, there is somewhat of a lack of feeling in Lanthimos’ film. With the exception of the aforementioned relationship between Teddy and Don, Bugonia is devoid of much emotion and is even a tad unfeeling upon its conclusion. This lack of emotion does not negate the enthralling nature of the proceeding journey nor the effectiveness of the emotion that does exist in the film, but it halts Bugonia right on the precipice of greatness.

VERDICT: 8/10

Yorgos Lanthimos crafts a mesmerizing, absurdly hilarious, poignant, and relevant film with Bugonia. Despite its unusual story, the Focus Features release is probably Lanthimos’ most approachable and even mainstream film, largely deprived of the quirkiness in dialogue and style his recent efforts have been marked by. The psychological back-and-forth between Jesse Plemons’ conspiracy-obsessed kidnapper and Emma Stone’s calculated CEO makes Bugonia an enthralling watch that invites the audience into the debate at hand and mirrors real-life interactions with people unwavering in their extreme views. Although Lanthimos and screenwriter Will Tracy don’t seem particularly interested in making some profound message, their film holds a mirror up to conspiracy theory and online misinformation culture and, after some of the absurdist humor subsides, becomes quite unsettling. In what could have easily gone awry, Bugonia spectacularly sticks its bold landing. However, the relative lack of emotion in the story beyond the endearing bond between Plemons’ Teddy and his cousin Don renders the film somewhat unfeeling. Nonetheless, Bugonia marks yet another phenomenal achievement in the filmography of Yorgos Lanthimos and confirms that his partnership with Emma Stone is one of the great actor-director pairings in modern cinema.