Going into “Bugonia” I was a completely blank canvas. Having avoided all trailers, social media, and only knowing the cast — I was excited to Yorgos Lanthimos’s latest piece of art with his frequent collaborators Emma Stone (also a producer on the film) and Jesse Plemons. The film, as it turns out, is a remarkable reinterpretation of a 2003 Korean sci-fi comedy — “Save the Green Planet!”
Let’s dive into a spoiler-heavy review of this fantastic film after sharing the trailer, which I still haven’t viewed.
“Begonia” marks Emma Stone’s fourth collaboration with Lanthimos following “The Favourite,” “Poor Things,” and “Kinds of Kindness,” and she has never been better or more dramatically different from her previous roles. While her work in those films demonstrated her range, “Bugonia” finds Stone inhabiting territory that feels completely fresh in her filmography.
Meanwhile, Jesse Plemons delivers a career-defining performance as a brainwashed conspiracy theorist dealing with childhood sexual trauma and a tragic story regarding how his mother (Alicia Silverstone) wound up in a coma—a role that demands both vulnerability and unhinged intensity.
Will Tracy pens a brilliant script after a string of successes, writing “The Menu” with frequent collaborator Mark Mylod after their years on “Succession.” Tracy’s narrative is structured around a countdown to a lunar eclipse which is of consequence for alien communication between space ships and its Earthly counterparts. It sets up a finale where either alien contact will occur or our leads’ dangerous plan will become a murderous endeavor.
Jesse Plemons stars as Teddy, a factory worker who is clearly representing the thousands of Amazon warehouse workers under CEO Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone), the Jeff Bezos of this universe. Teddy is shown as thoughtful to his coworker friend who is struggling with the job following an onsite injury which she doesn’t want to report. It’s clear Teddy doesn’t have warm feelings toward the corporate work police.
In the opening scene with Michelle Fuller, she is clearly aware of overworking concerns regarding her employees. She tries to balance letting employees know they can leave at 5:30 “if they want…” and also make it clear they should finish the work. It’s hilariously written and delivered by Emma Stone, in one of her only scenes before being taken hostage.
Yorgos has a wonderful scene of her kickboxing and fighting so that we know the kidnapping won’t be a “smooth affair” to say the least.
As much as you want to like Teddy, this dark web surfer has been indoctrinated with some crazy ideas and that has overwritten any sense of morality alongside his childhood trauma that’s hinted at in the film with the perfect insinuation.
We open on bees, pollination, lectures on the queen and worker bee relationships, and Teddy talking about colony collapse disorder. This disorder is devastating honeybee populations and is a layered commentary on humanity’s path to destruction. Teddy is acting as part professor, part gym trainer, and supposedly loving cousin to his younger cousin Don.
Don is played by a talented neurodivergent actor, Aidan Delbis, who’s a grounding presence in the film and the perfect addition to this story centering on misinformation, manipulation, and tragic outcomes of today’s twisted world of information bubbles. Don is pulled into Teddy’s paranoid belief that aliens from the Andromeda galaxy are preparing to destroy Earth. Teddy drills Don on clearing their minds and says that removing sexual thoughts is helpful to stay focused on their goals.
Despite reservations, Teddy convinces Don to take a shot that causes chemical castration so they both are on the same level of mental control and focus. This and floor exercises in a dilapidated house are the prep they need to kidnap Stone’s Michelle Fuller. The pharmaceutical giant CEO is adbucted and taken back to the home where she’s chained in the basement (after shaving her head and covering her with power blocking antihistamine cream).
After wearing very beat down clothing throughout the first act, Teddy puts on a suit and tries to be formal with his questioning of the “alien” in his basement.
Stone’s work here as Michelle is brilliant, cycling through various psychological tactics to try and overwhelm them. She barks threats and even Teddy admits that it put him on his heels for a minute, before he refocused on his game plan.
Teddy demands to be taken to her ship on the lunar eclipse, and when she doesn’t feed into his apparent delusions he responds by electrocuting her with massive volts of electricity with Green Day’s “Basket Case” playing to the torture.
The result is that Teddy is now convinced she is a high level alien, due to how much electrical current she was able to survive. The torture scene is truly unsettling, and it sets the stakes for what Teddy is willing to do on his vital mission to protect the Earth from this species’ plans.
It’s interesting to see the introduction of an overweight, concerned cop Casey (Stavros Halkias) who catches up with Teddy on the highway. It becomes clear that he and Teddy know each other, having been a babysitter for the young kidnapper. The cop is investigating Michelle Fuller’s disappearance in the area, but his most interesting element is continually apologizing for clearly molesting Teddy as an adolescent.
It’s a surprising turn in the narrative and speaks further to the broken psychological makeup of Teddy, which is captured in every pause and mannerism exhibited by Plemons. The young actor is no doubt on his way to another Oscar nomination, as are Stone, and Delbis.
Teddy visits his mother, who has been in a coma since participating in pharmaceutical trials conducted by Michelle Fuller’s company. A tie-in that Fuller notices when she’s forced to wear a dress of his mother’s to an oddly choreographed dinner set piece between Fuller and the two kidnapper cousins.
This personal connection adds fuel to Teddy’s simmering rage while giving Michelle leverage to deploy the emotional manipulation skills Teddy warned Don about. Eventually, Michelle loses her composure entirely, screaming “You can’t beat me because you are a loser and I’m a winner! And that’s fucking life!”
From there, things come to a head with further tragedy and plot twists, culminating in a jaw dropping conclusion which feels entirely like a Lanthimos project while having far more mainstream appeal than any of his previous works.
Emma Stone transforms completely in this riveting role which cements her collaborations with Lanthimos to be eye-level with those of Christian Bale and David O. Russell, or Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese.
The film benefits tremendously from its two stars, but the casting of Aidan Delbis for a brilliantly scripted role leads to an inspired performance that is a star-making turn. Delbis’ vulnerability and loyalty to Teddy as Don, despite it conflicting with his internal morality, is fascinating to watch. When Don stops the electric shock therapy on Stone’s Fuller in the basement, you wonder if he’s going to save the day and free her from their imprisonment.
Working with cinematographer Robbie Ryan, Lanthimos creates a visual language that balances the mundane reality of conspiracy culture with moments of surreal intensity. His work alongside editor Yorgos Mavropsaridis during the dinner scene is impeccable to say the least.
The production design of James Price is rich with detail and makes for a very “lived-in world” and understanding of who these characters are without the need for copious exposition about their circumstances in the screenplay.
The sound design by Johnnie Burn supports the film’s tonal shifts between dark comedy and genuine menace while the score by Jerskin Fendrix is particularly engrossing. Fendrix’s unsettling contribution to the film’s atmosphere balances the absurdist elements with genuine psychological horror and suffocating tension.
Lanthimos’s direction is perfect here, exploring power dynamics and psychological manipulation, themes that are so relevant in our current era of conspiracy theories and fake news that’s led to society’s fractured nature.
“Bugonia” succeeds as a gripping character study amid truly bizarre brainwashing and ever evolving manipulation between Stone’s Fuller and the dimwitted cousins who live in this false reality. The film is well-paced and thoroughly engaging start-to-finish, which is a rare distinction these days without any CGI explosions… well maybe just one.
I can’t recommend “Bugonia” highly enough for fans of his work, and that goes twice for audiences that weren’t enthralled with his previous theatrical release, “Kinds of Kindness.” With “Begonia,” the auteur director delivers his most approachable film to date and it will hopefully lead to a high grossing theatrical run and widespread conversation about this thematically rich work.
Letter Grade: A+