It speaks to just how truly bizarre Yorgos Lanthimos‘s filmography is if his latest, Bugonia – an English language remake of the 2003 South Korean black comedy sci-fi outing, Save the Green Planet! – is considered one of his most accessible. Yes, there’s a certain comedic universality to the film’s premise – that of a conspiracy theorist kidnapping a high-powered executive, convinced they’re an alien seeking to overtake Earth – but Lanthimos and screenwriter Will Tracy (The Menu) have still devised a bleak worldview of humanity; even if it’s somewhat lightened with that classic satirical touch we’d expect from the auteur responsible for such divisive titles as The Lobster, The Favourite, Poor Things, and Kinds of Kindness.
The fourth feature collaboration between Lanthimos and Emma Stone, here the two-time Oscar recipient continues her streak as one of her generation’s most exciting, unpredictable genre performers as Michelle Fuller, the CEO of pharmaceutical company Auxolith. She’s dripping in lady boss attire and armed with a stern, faux-relatable mentality that, in just a few short scenes, paints her effortlessly as a leadership figure that preaches openness in her workplace regarding flexible working hours, before expressing the importance of optics in a manner that undoes any of the “good will” she would like to be seeing projecting.
The juxtaposition of her temperament is mirrored in her surroundings, where her sleek, corporate office and lavish, minimalist mansion are in stark contrast to the largely rundown town they’re situated in. Strip malls and unkept houses adorn the streets, and it’s in one of these dwellings where obsessed conspiracy theorist (and beekeeping enthusiast) Teddy Gatz (Jesse Plemons, phenomenal) and his autistic cousin, Don (autistic actor Aidan Delbis), devise a plan to kidnap Michelle; Teddy believes Auxolith is responsible for the widespread Colony Collapse Disorder, not only among his bees but worldwide, due to the production of toxic chemicals.
There’s plenty of metaphors at work regarding the hierarchy of drone bees abandoning their queen and that of the corporate line between the 1% and, well, everyone else, but Tracy’s script doesn’t beat the audience over the head with such, instead focusing on the farcical nature of Teddy’s plan and just why he’s after Michelle. He’s of the belief that she’s of the species “the Andromedans”, intent on invading the human race, and, as he explains to Don, the signs are obvious if you take a closer look at her; for starters, how a woman in her 40s can look so youthful is a tell-tale sign of her extraterrestrial influence.
“99% of activism is just personal exhibition,” is Teddy’s view on politics, having tried largely every wing of such, and it’s because he has a much larger view for his own future that he’s planning on Michelle taking him back to her planet when, in four nights during a lunar eclipse, her ship will arrive. He’s hoping to negotiate for the human race. Michelle, understandably, debunks any of his theories, staunchly defending her humanness and, in her best mediator tone, negotiates her release.
For the majority of its 118 minute running time, Bugonia – a film of few characters and even fewer locations – plays out like a tense, blackly comic kidnapping thriller, with Stone’s Michelle, who has her hair shaved off, due to Teddy believing her alien brethren can’t communicate with her if so, managing to effectively manoeuvre the cat-and-mouse-like game Teddy thinks he’s orchestrating. Despite being shackled in Teddy’s basement, Michelle makes her presence and movements larger than the space around her, with Don proving her way in to Teddy’s hopeful humanity. We gather that Don is very much under Teddy’s thumb. He states that he has doubts about Teddy’s actions, but he also only clearly has Teddy in his life and wants to appease him – so much so that he agrees to a chemical castration, which Teddy informs is necessary as to make sure that any alien-enforced sexual distraction will be futile; it’s actually quite heartbreaking, and Don’s frustration with Michelle reshaping how he views Teddy’s logistics leads to one of the film’s more shocking visuals.
Lanthimos and Tracy have no hesitation in unnerving audiences across Bugonia, manging to quite masterfully balance the film’s darkly humorous commentary with a more tragic state of mind. This seen most prominently in the subplot surrounding Teddy’s dying mother, Sandy (Alicia Silverstone), who, through predominant black-and-white sequences, is comatose after undergoing a failed Auxolith treatment for opioid addiction; “This one’s on us,” Michelle states, along with an empty promise to pay reparations and “do better.” The more the film uncovers Teddy’s existence, his insistence on proving Michelle’s alien race becomes all the more clear. It becomes more than just about proving a theory that “they are out there,” but in his own desire to escape a life that is riddled with trauma; in addition to his mother, the should-be hero of the story, Casey (Stavros Halkias), a local police officer, proves to be a predatory chapter in Teddy’s past, further fueling this escapist temperament.
Given Hollywood’s self-importance, it makes sense that it’s a director like Lanthimos to speak to the notion that the planet would be better off without humankind. Bugonia has an odd sense of hope peppered throughout its ultimate apocalyptic mentality, but whether or not it’s for humanity remains to be seen for the viewer. A Greek word – βουγονία – that refers to an ancient Mediterranean ritual or belief that bees spontaneously generate from the carcasses of dead animals, particularly oxen, Lanthimos and Tracy aren’t subtle on the refreshing the world needs, and, hopefully, audiences will embrace such a process with an intended self-awareness.
FOUR AND A HALF STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Bugonia is screening in Australian theatres from October 30th, 2025.
