Bugonia Review: Jesse Plemons Tries To Break Emma Stone In Yorgos Lanthimos' Twisted Comedy

Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone are at it again with "Bugonia," a twisted dark comedy based on the 2003 South Korean film "Save the Green Planet!" with a noticeable "deranged American life in 2025" twist. There's a lot of talk here about online conspiracy rabbit holes, with one character, an unwashed, unwell young man, mentioning that he went through various toxic phases, starting with the alt-right and working his way downward.

In some ways, "Bugonia" feels connected to two other 2025 films that seem to sum up our strange times: Ari Aster's underrated "Eddington" and Paul Thomas Anderson's masterful "One Battle After Another." But while "Eddington" is something of a farce, and Anderson's film blends hot-button politics with crowd-pleasing thrills, Lanthimos' film has an undeniable hopelessness designed to make the audience uncomfortable.

I'm not the biggest Lanthimos fan. I wasn't fully on board with his work until "The Favourite," mostly because I found his movies too damn cruel. With "Bugonia," that cruelty is back on display, although the mood is lightened by a certain sense of silliness. Yet there are several moments in "Bugonia" that are so nasty and mean-spirited that it left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. Not helping matters is the fact that the film frequently feels scattered, as if the script by Will Tracy doesn't quite know what it's trying to say.

"Bugonia" is ultimately bolstered by a trio of strong performances and a few twists and turns that make us reconsider everything we've experienced. Sickos will get a kick out of this one, and I say that lovingly. The final moments (which I won't dare spoil) are so delightfully morbid that I was almost willing to forget any qualms I had.

Stone plays Michelle Fuller, the high-profile, high-powered SEO of a pharmaceutical company (we're told she's supposed to be 45 years-old, a questionable idea that plays into a certain sense of mystery surrounding the character). Michelle lives in wealth and isolation, and we're introduced to her going about her workday, telling an assistant that it's okay if employees want to go home at 5:30 ... unless they have work to do, then they should absolutely stay.

While Michelle's world is one of sterile white environments and floor-to-ceiling glass, we also look into the more rundown lives of Teddy (Jesse Plemons) and his cousin Don (Aidan Delbis), who are preparing Teddy's isolated country house. Lanthimos contrasts the two different worlds the characters live in without subtlety: while Michelle's environments and clothing are spotless and clean, Teddy (who looks like he hasn't taken a shower in over a month) and Don practically exist in squalor.

These two worlds come crashing together when Teddy and Don kidnap Michelle from her home. But they haven't abducted this wealthy woman for a ransom; instead, Teddy is convinced that Michelle is an alien from the planet Andromeda. He claims he's conducted extensive research (which involved watching YouTube videos, naturally) and is 100% convinced that Michelle is a humanoid alien part of a race that has secretly enslaved humanity and is slowly killing us off by making life and the world at large increasingly terrible, especially for working class people like Teddy.

The abduction is played for queasy laughs, as Teddy's behavior and ideas sound inherently ludicrous (for example: he has Don shave off Michelle's hair, because he believes the aliens use their hair to communicate with each other). Teddy wants to use Michelle to negotiate with the aliens and save the human race in the process, all while Michelle keeps insisting Teddy is delusional and that she's obviously not an alien. From here, "Bugonia" becomes almost a feature-length interrogation, with Teddy trying to break Michelle, and Michelle trying to reason with her captors.

While there's not a whole lot of meat on these bones (at least not until the film approaches a blood-soaked finale), "Bugonia" is elevated by its able cast. Stone, who has done some of her best work with Lanthimos, masterfully juggles a tricky role — we sympathize with Michelle because she's been kidnapped, but we can also tell she's a deeply flawed individual without really learning much about her, and that's due to the icy way Stone plays her. Stone's performance is only enhanced by Plemons, who is the real star here, playing Teddy as a damaged man with a troubled past — surreal black and white flashbacks give us insight into his relationship with his sickly mother, played by Alicia Silverstone.

Much of "Bugonia" is a two-hander with Stone and Plemons going at it, playing a twisted battle of wits as these two characters try to figure each other out. Adding to the dynamic is a memorable turn from Delbis as Don. Delbis is an autistic actor playing an autistic character, and while such an idea could lead to something potentially exploitative, the character becomes a kind of moral center, the most sympathetic figure here.

Featuring a deliberately chaotic, thundering musical score from Jerskin Fendrik, "Bugonia" frequently feels too cheeky for its own good — as if Lanthimos and company are having a huge cynical laugh at our expense. There's nothing wrong with that, per se, but I'm not entirely sure it helps the film's overall message — assuming it has a message at all. Ultimately, "Bugonia" seems destined to be considered one of the "lesser" collaborations between Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone while also being one of 2025's more memorable films. It's sick and twisted enough to stick with you, and the closing moments are particularly delightful (in a bleak sort of way). I just wish it all added up to a little bit more.

/Film Rating: 7 out of 10

"Bugonia" opens in theaters on October 24, 2025.