Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons are excellent in the latest spin of nihilism from director Yorgos Lanthimos in Bugonia.
Bugonia marks the sixth collaboration between director Yorgos Lanthimos and actress Emma Stone, and it is one of several films released this year that reckon with the current political landscape. Lanthimos’s absurdist directorial style feels especially suited to examine the current moment, and the result is mostly successful. Bugonia is a darkly funny and occasionally somber film that aims to confront how people are finding themselves down conspiratorial rabbit holes, while also satirizing corporate greed and exploitation. Like most of Lanthimos’s work, it takes big swings that mostly land but are far from comprehensive in terms of its social commentary.
Bugonia follows conspiracy theorist Teddy (Jesse Plemons) and his cousin Don (Aidan Delbis) as they kidnap Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone), the CEO of the pharmaceutical company Auxolith, and hold her hostage in their home. Teddy believes that Michelle is part of an alien species that is the cause of all the evils in the world, and gives her four days to contact her mothership before the lunar eclipse. Teddy hopes that Michelle and her fellow aliens will leave Earth, and that the world will subsequently be a nice place to live.
Like Lanthimos’s previous film, Poor Things, Bugonia depicts our mundane world and its sci-fi elements in equally stunning fashion. The third act, where all aspects of the narrative crescendo into peak strangeness, works primarily due to Lanthimos’s ability to capture the absurdity that already exists in our world and balance that with fantasy in such a way that the departures from reality aren’t jarring.
Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons are perfectly suited for their roles.
Credit: Atsushi Nishijima/Focus Features © 2025 All Rights Reserved.
The violence is sparse but effective when it happens, eliciting genuine shock. It’s a testament to Lanthimos’s abilities as a director that such sinister subject matter is able to be comedic without losing its weight. The score, beautifully composed by Jerskin Fendrix, also does a lot of heavy lifting in creating the right tone.
Stone is the perfect collaborator for Lanthimos, as her strength lies in balancing even the most bombastic comedy with utter sincerity and emotional depth. She infuses all of her characters with impressive dimension, and her performance in Bugonia is one of her best. Michelle could so easily be a caricature of corporate evil, but she possesses complexity through Stone’s delivery and infinitely expressive eyes. Plemons is similarly gifted at making even the strangest characters feel real, and Teddy is as tragic as he is funny. The two are riveting to watch onscreen, with Stone’s wry logic providing a hysterical contrast to Plemons’ erratic unpredictability.
The bottom line.
Bugonia does not have all of the answers when it comes to why people turn to conspiracy theories in the face of turmoil. Still, Lanthimos does not seem interested in providing definitive answers. Instead, he leans into a sort of nihilism that will prove divisive for audiences. Overall, the film encapsulates the hopelessness and insanity that our current moment often engenders. Whether our overlords are corporate or of an alien species, it seems as though the world they are ruling over is more ridiculous than ever.
Bugonia is now playing in theaters everywhere. Watch the trailer here.
Images courtesy of Focus Features. Read more articles by Isabella Cantillano-Sanchez here.
REVIEW RATING
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Bugonia - 8/10
8/10
