Review:
"Bugonia"
Release Date: Oct. 24, 2025 Rating: R Running Time: 119 minutes There was a time not too long ago when you could contemplate a conspiracy theory and seize upon a small kernel of truth and say to yourself, Of course more than one gunman was involved in assassinating John F. Kennedy. But now we live in a time when even the most outlandish and debunked conspiracy theory refuses to die. Remember Pizzagate? QAnon? The Sandy Hook hoax pushed by Alex Jones? Thanks to the proliferation of social media, such conspiracy theories spread fast and far, taking hold because they play into a weak and gullible person’s fears and political beliefs, radicalizing them in the process. Bugonia, Yorgos Lanthimos’ talky remake of the 2003 South Korean sci-fi cautionary tale Save the Green Planet!, is a black comedy very much of its time. And the conspiracy theory that informs Bugonia—an alien species wants to enslave humanity through the destruction of Earth’s honeybee population—feels very much like one that could be easily adopted by those who refuse to accept the science behind climate change and global warming. With Bugonia, Lanthimos and screenwriter Will Tracy explore the dangers on acting on a conspiracy theory, especially one that is absurd to the point of ridiculous. Teddy Gatz (Jesse Plemons) and his autistic cousin Don (Aidan Delbis) kidnap pharmaceutical company CEO Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone) because the former believes she is a member of an alien species known as the “Andromedans.” Teddy wants Michelle to arrange a meeting with her emperor in a bid to free humanity from alien enslavement and to save Earth. Michelle naturally denies being an alien. What follows is a lot of talk between Teddy and Michelle, some torture set to Green Day, and the inevitable escape attempt. Bugonia wants you to believe there is more to Michelle being held captured in Teddy’s basement. But there isn’t. It is just two hours of Teddy trying to get Michelle to confess to being an alien. The “dialogue”—to borrow from the corporate jargon that Michelle uses and screenwriter Will Tracy pokes fun at—is sharp, witty, and telling. There is much talk about corporate greed, social inertia, and the slow but steady destruction of the planet. But the conversation is circular from start to finish, and it fails to sustain interest in Teddy’s campaign and Michelle’s predicament beyond the first hour of the film. Unlike such recent efforts as The Favorite and Poor Things, director Yorgos Lanthimos maintains a grounded approach to the proceedings. So he relies heavily on the tense and energetic verbal sparring between Teddy and Michelle to keep Bugonia moving. Plemons imbues Teddy with rare conviction and dedication, portraying Teddy as a pure and incorruptible symbol of resistance against a (human or otherwise) system designed to keep the 99 percent in its place. Stone is equally as controlled and resilient as she locks horn with Plemons, with Michelle symbolic of a corporate America that places greater value on the dollar than on the customer base it serves. But Bugonia falters by not having a foil for either Plemons or Stone to bounce off of. As good as Aidan Delbis is as Teddy’s cousin, Don displays too much blind loyalty to question Teddy’s plan and intention, resulting in a film that continuously engages in two one-side arguments. As for whether Michelle is human or alien: Bugonia is one of the rare films that would have greatly benefited from an ambiguous ending. Instead, its message-oriented reveal is both anticlimactic and unsatisfactory. In their desire to put forth a clear-cut ending, Lanthimos and Tracy rob audiences of deciding for themselves whether Teddy is the hero humanity needs or a misguided conspiracy theorist engaged in kidnapping and torture. Or, more important, does humanity deserve to be saved. Aired: Oct. 22, 2025. Web site: https://www.focusfeatures.com/bugonia |
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