Bugonia (2025)

	Directed by: Yorgos Lanthimos	COUNTRY UK/Ireland/ South Korea/USA GENRE Comedy/Drama NORWEGIAN TITLE Bugonia RUNNING TIME 118 minutes
	Produced by: Ed Guiney Andrew Lowe Yorgos Lanthimos Emma Stone Ari Aster Lars Knudsen Miky Lee
	Written by (based on Save the Green Planet! by Jang Joon-hwan): Will Tracy

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Michelle Fuller	Emma Stone
Teddy Gatz	Jesse Plemons	½
Don	Aidan Delbis
Casey Boyd	Stavros Halkias
Sandy Gatz	Alicia Silverstone	-

Review

Conspiracy theorists, mental illness, big pharma, consumerism, and the apparent collapse of governance are all given a solid, sometimes hilariously funny bashing in Yorgos Lanthimos' latest excursion into borderline absurdity – based on the South Korean 2003 film Save the Green Planet! by Jang Joon-hwan, who is credited here as an executive producer. Bugonia is in many ways both smaller and larger in scope than Lanthimos' most recent films, Poor Things and Kinds of Kindness: There are intimate sets, a small town, and a limited cast, though the possible repercussions of the proceedings are gargantuan – at least if we are to believe what the story's instigator, Teddy Gatz (Jesse Plemons) postulates. His idea is that Earth has been taken over by hostile aliens, and that he and his cousin Don (Aidan Delbis) must kidnap one of their ringleaders, the powerful pharmaceutical CEO Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone) in order to save humanity.

Few filmmakers have developed a more distinct aesthetic taste than Lanthimos over the past couple of decades, and his films are often not only a showcase for absurdist black comedy, but also a blitz of ideas. Bugonia is among his most controlled and mature efforts, more akin to The Favourite than to Poor Things. And while the continual ironic distance may hinder full immersion and give the film a slight whiff of disdain, Lanthimos and his cast treat their characters with respect and affection. None more so than Jesse Plemons, who gives a career-best performance as Teddy – an archetypical YouTube-educated American of the 2020s who's either a schizophrenic or a genius.