Bugonia is the 2025 English-language film directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and starring Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons. The film centres on a high-powered corporate CEO who is kidnapped by two conspiracy-obsessed cousins convinced she is an alien plotting the destruction of Earth. It is a remake of the 2003 South Korean cult film Save the Green Planet!.
What stands out: the film blends absurdist humour, sci-fi paranoia, dark satire of corporate power, and the strange undercurrent of cultish belief.
Plot & Key Themes
The story follows Michelle Fuller (Stone), the CEO of a major pharmaceutical company, who is abducted by Teddy (Plemons) and his cousin Don. They hold her captive, convinced she is an extraterrestrial being using her corporate façade to manipulate the world. The kidnapping becomes at once a hostage thriller, a moral enquiry into power and guilt, and an eerie fable about alienation and belief.
The film weaves the following key themes:
-
Corporate accountability: The film interrogates the damage wrought by big business and what happens when people sense hidden motives.
-
Conspiracy and belief: It explores how fringe beliefs can gain traction when fueled by fear, trauma and mysterious secrecy.
-
Alienation & identity: Michelle’s ambiguous status—victim or alien?—mirrors broader questions of authenticity and otherness.
-
Humour and horror mingle: Lanthimos uses his signature unsettling tone to merge comedy with discomfort, delivering laughs that unsettle and shocks that provoke thought.
Cast & Performances
-
Emma Stone delivers a captivating performance, embracing physical changes (including a radical bald-head look) to fully inhabit both the corporate titan and the nameless “other”.
-
Jesse Plemons plays the disturbed Teddy with quiet intensity, making his fanaticism chilling rather than cartoonish.
-
The supporting cast—including Aidan Delbis, Stavros Halkias and Alicia Silverstone—anchor the weirdness with contrasting normalcy and extremity.
Critics have singled out Stone and Plemons as being at the top of their game, fully aligned with Lanthimos’s distinct tonal world.
Production Notes
-
This marks the fourth collaboration between Lanthimos and Stone, following a string of acclaimed films.
-
Screenplay was adapted by Will Tracy.
-
Filming took place across England, Georgia (USA) and Greece, and utilised high-end 35 mm VistaVision format cinematography to give the film a rich, widescreen look.
-
With an estimated budget of around US$45-55 million, it is reportedly the most expensive film Lanthimos has made to date.
Premiere & Release
Bugonia premiered in competition at the 2025 Venice International Film Festival and then opened theatrically in the United States in late October 2025. The rollout makes it a strong contender for awards season notice, thanks to its auteur pedigree and provocative subject matter.
Marketing around the film has also leaned into its absurdity and cult potential, with promotional stunts (including screenings for fans who shaved their heads) reinforcing the weird-and-wonderful tone of the project.
Critical Reception & Audience Response
Critical response has generally been positive. Many reviewers highlight how Lanthimos pushes his signature style into darker, more topical territory—focusing less on outright whimsy and more on systematic critique. Some common observations:
-
The tonal blend of horror, satire and comedy is executed boldly, though it may alienate viewers expecting something more straightforward.
-
Stone’s transformation and performance are widely praised; the script gives her shades of victim-, villain- and outsider.
-
The film is described as “unremittingly grim” by some, with its misanthropic undercurrents, yet also unexpectedly funny.
-
Some viewers find the plot’s ambiguity and abrupt finale challenging—but that is arguably part of its intention: to provoke questions rather than deliver safe answers.
Why It Matters
Bugonia matters on several levels:
-
It shows that mainstream-style films can still be daringly weird and intellectually provocative.
-
It tackles big contemporary anxieties—corporate malfeasance, conspiracy culture, ecological collapse—within a genre-bending framework.
-
Its high production values and star talent bring auteur cinema into a broader reach.
-
As a remake of a cult Korean film, it bridges international film culture and demonstrates how ideas transmogrify across contexts.
Final Thoughts
If you’re looking for a film that will make you laugh, squirm, reflect—and then maybe question whether you’re laughing with or at the characters—Bugonia fits the bill. It isn’t comfortable, it isn’t conventional, and it doesn’t hand you neat moral answers.
For fans of Lanthimos’s previous work, of Stone’s talent, and of films that linger long after the credits roll, this one is likely to stick. Whether you’ll love it or find it too strange depends on how much you’re willing to embrace its oddity.
SEO Keywords to Keep in Mind
Bugonia review, Bugonia release date, Yorgos Lanthimos Bugonia, Emma Stone Bugonia bald look, Bugonia plot explanation, Bugonia trailer, Bugonia themes, Bugonia film cast.