Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos
Starring: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Aidan Delbis, Alicia Silverstone

The endlessly inventive Yorgos Lanthimos is back once again, reuniting with his now-regular muse Emma Stone for their third collaboration — and bringing along Jesse Plemons for their second team-up after 2024’s Kinds of Kindnesses. His latest, Bugonia, is an English-language remake of the 2003 Korean cult classic Save the Green Planet! — but in true Lanthimos fashion, it’s less a straightforward remake and more a reimagining through his distinctively absurd, deadpan lens.

The story follows Teddy Gatz (Plemons), a lonely warehouse worker and beekeeper turned full-blown conspiracy theorist, who becomes convinced that Michelle Fuller (Stone), a powerful pharmaceutical CEO, is secretly an alien plotting to exterminate humankind. With the help of his autistic cousin Don (played with heartbreaking authenticity by newcomer Delbis), Teddy kidnaps Michelle in a desperate attempt to save the world — or perhaps to justify his own unraveling mind.

Blending equal parts drama, dark comedy, and psychological horror, Bugonia brims with Lanthimos’ signature oddness: sharp, stilted dialogue; skewed perspectives; and an unnerving mix of absurd humor and human fragility. The camera work, alternating between wide, clinical compositions and claustrophobic Steadicam shots, builds a sense of dread that feels almost Kubrickian. The sparse score and eerie silences only heighten the feeling that something deeply off is lurking beneath every polite exchange.

Plemons delivers one of his most compelling performances yet — restrained, twitchy, and quietly terrifying — capturing a man teetering between delusion and revelation. Delbis, in a standout debut, provides the film with its aching emotional core, grounding the chaos in genuine vulnerability. Together, they form an oddly touching duo, balancing the grotesque and the tender in a way that feels quintessentially Lanthimos.

Stone, as the calculating CEO, is chilling in her detachment. Her performance blurs the line between human and machine, offering a biting critique of the tech and pharmaceutical elite — those who speak of progress and innovation while appearing increasingly devoid of empathy. In her icy persona, she becomes the perfect embodiment of modern alienation: powerful, polished, and entirely unreadable.

Though Bugonia doesn’t quite achieve the seamless cohesion of Lanthimos’ best work, its individual parts — the tension, the humor, the performances — are mesmerizing on their own. It’s a film that keeps you slightly off-balance, laughing one moment and deeply unsettled the next.

Ultimately, Bugonia reflects the strange paranoia of our current moment — an era where conspiracy theories thrive, truth feels negotiable, and belief itself has become a form of entertainment. As a dark satire, it hits the mark with eerie precision. And perhaps, in the end, its message is both cynical and necessary: in a world where nothing seems real, don’t trust everything you see — not even this review.

Have you seen BUGONIA? Well, what do you think?

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