By Irshad Khan 
Critics have hailed Yorgos Lanthimos’ latest collaboration with Emma Stone, Bugonia, as a twisted yet captivating thriller that showcases phenomenal performances from both Stone and Jesse Plemons. The absurdist black comedy, which premiered with a standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival, is now receiving widespread praise following its theatrical release on October 24, 2025. Lanthimos’ distinctive directorial vision combined with the electric onscreen chemistry between Stone and Plemons has created what many reviewers are calling one of the director’s most audacious and entertaining works, featuring provocative storytelling that redefines the conspiracy thriller genre.
Critical Response and Reviews
Bugonia has garnered strong critical acclaim with a Rotten Tomatoes score hovering around 76-78% among critics, accompanied by enthusiastic audience responses. Variety praised the film as “Outstanding,” while calling it a masterwork in misdirection and psychological manipulation. Multiple critics have positioned Bugonia among 2025’s most compelling and memorable films, despite the challenging theatrical marketplace for art house cinema.
The Hollywood Reporter acknowledged that while Bugonia may not rank among Lanthimos’ finest achievements, it remains visually stunning, showcasing the vibrancy and sharp clarity brought to life through VistaVision cinematography. Vulture’s Bilge Ebiri noted that Bugonia embodies the essence of Lanthimos’ directorial sensibility—a twisted comedy that operates on multiple registers simultaneously, blending dark humor with genuine psychological tension.
Rolling Stone observed that Bugonia represents one of Lanthimos’ most approachable films to date, with fewer of his trademark fish-eye lens shots and unsettling sexual encounters, yet maintaining his signature deadpan humor and unflinching observations about human peculiarity. Screen Rant called the film “an audacious thriller” that honors its Korean predecessor while establishing its own identity within Lanthimos’ oeuvre.
The film received a six-minute standing ovation at its Venice Film Festival premiere, with audiences applauding the audacious storytelling and provocative content that refuses to pull punches regarding violence and psychological torment. This enthusiastic reception positioned Bugonia as a prestige offering worthy of awards consideration, though its commercial prospects in the current theatrical landscape remain uncertain.
Plot and Premise
Bugonia is an English-language remake of the 2003 South Korean cult film Save the Green Planet! directed by Jang Joon-hwan. The film follows two conspiracy-obsessed men—Teddy (Jesse Plemons) and his cousin Don (Aidan Delbis)—who kidnap Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone), a high-powered pharmaceutical CEO, convinced that she is an extraterrestrial bent on destroying Earth. What begins as a premise suggesting limited scope—essentially three people trapped in a basement—expands through Lanthimos’ creative direction into a meditation on reality, perception, conspiracy culture, and corporate malfeasance.
The narrative unfolds as a battle of wits between captor and captive, with Stone’s Michelle deploying cold rationality against Plemons’ Teddy’s delusional conviction. The film interrogates whom audiences should believe, using the basement setting as a microcosm for broader societal dysfunction. Themes of alienation, corporate exploitation, and the human tendency toward paranoia permeate the narrative, creating parallels between actual corporate harm and imagined extraterrestrial threats.
The film’s structure deliberately mines tension from the audience’s uncertainty regarding character motivations and reliability. As Teddy torments Michelle—shaving her head to “prevent her from contacting her mothership,” coating her in antihistamine cream, subjecting her to psychological manipulation—Lanthimos refuses to position any character as wholly sympathetic, complicating audience identification and emotional investment. This moral ambiguity extends throughout the runtime, with the narrative constantly shifting perspective on who represents danger and who represents salvation.
Supporting performances from Alicia Silverstone (as Teddy’s ailing mother in surreal black-and-white flashbacks) and Stavros Halkias (as a local police officer) add additional layers to the narrative, expanding the film’s scope beyond the basement setting while deepening thematic exploration of family trauma, institutional failure, and the conspiracy mindset.
Emma Stone’s Transformative Performance
Emma Stone delivers what critics are calling one of her most compelling and utterly transformed performances in Bugonia, demonstrating remarkable evolution as an actress willing to take unprecedented physical and emotional risks. Stone’s portrayal of Michelle represents something entirely different from her previous Lanthimos collaborations. Where The Favourite showcased dry wit and Poor Things displayed childlike naïveté, Stone’s Michelle is defined by icy restraint, moral ambiguity, and physical degradation that strips away glamour in favor of primal humanity.
The Los Angeles Times praised Stone’s masterful performance, noting her ability to “control focus with nothing more than a shaved head, a filthy coat and a tight smile” while remaining “mesmerizing” in massive close-ups. Stone maintains an unblinking gaze directly toward the audience, coolly explaining her character’s position while maintaining psychological distance that prevents audience sympathy from calcifying. This calculated performance strategy—keeping viewers perpetually off-balance regarding Michelle’s trustworthiness—proves essential to the film’s narrative mechanics and thematic resonance.
Multiple critics noted that Stone’s willingness to be depicted covered in antihistamine cream, shaved bald, and subjected to graphic violence demonstrates her commitment to Lanthimos’ vision. Screen Rant observed that Stone’s performance “feels completely unlike any of her previous Lanthimos collaborations,” establishing her evolution as an actress capable of portraying deeply layered, morally complicated women who resist conventional characterization.
Stone serves as both actress and producer on Bugonia, granting her creative input beyond performance. This involvement underscores her trust in Lanthimos’ directorial vision and her willingness to champion unconventional character work that challenges typical Hollywood expectations regarding female leading roles and star presentation.
Jesse Plemons’ Standout Role
Jesse Plemons delivers what multiple critics describe as the standout performance of Bugonia, portraying Teddy—a damaged conspiracy theorist with a troubled past—as both menacing and pathetic, dangerous yet damaged. Plemons’ work demonstrates remarkable range, transitioning between moments of terrifying violence and surprising vulnerability as the narrative reveals his trauma and emotional fragility. SlashFilm noted that Plemons is “as good as he’s ever been at the tortured, confident, misguided Teddy,” building upon his established reputation from Friday Night Lights and Kinds of Kindness for portraying complex masculine characters navigating emotional wreckage.
The chemistry between Stone and Plemons elevates Bugonia substantially, with critics specifically praising their “electric onscreen chemistry” and their ability to sustain tension across the film’s runtime. Plemons urges audiences directly: “Pause Netflix and go see Bugonia in the theater,” emphasizing the theatrical experience’s necessity for experiencing the film’s booming score, visceral performances, and carefully composed visual storytelling in proper cinema environments.
That Hashtag Show described Plemons’ performance as emerging from “tortured confidence,” suggesting a character simultaneously convinced of his righteous mission while manifesting desperate insecurity regarding his role as conspiracy theorist and captor. This contradictory characterization—the “tortured, confident, misguided” quality—creates a Teddy who remains psychologically fascinating despite (or because of) his capacity for grotesque violence.
Plemons’ performance also serves as implicit commentary on conspiracy culture, representing the damaged men drawn to elaborate theoretical frameworks as compensation for personal trauma and social failure. His surreal flashbacks—depicting his relationship with his ailing mother (Alicia Silverstone)—provide psychological texture that complicates audience response, preventing Teddy from becoming a simple villain while maintaining his threatening presence.
Lanthimos’ Signature Vision
Yorgos Lanthimos brings his distinctive directorial sensibility to Bugonia while simultaneously proving adaptable to source material he didn’t originate. Unlike previous projects he developed over years, Lanthimos admitted to being “instantly captivated” by Will Tracy’s screenplay, collaborating with the writer to “infuse a bit of my style into it.” This approach—taking an existing script and imbuing it with Lanthimosian sensibility—represents a different creative process than the director’s typical practice of complete creative control from conception.
The visual presentation employs VistaVision cinematography and Kodak 35mm stock alongside cinematographer Robbie Ryan’s careful composition, creating an artfulness that elevates the narrative beyond its basement setting. The recurring imagery of bees and honey—metaphorically representing workers harvesting value for powerful figures—demonstrates Lanthimos’ commitment to visual and thematic cohesion. Critics praised the film’s “detailed work on the bees,” noting how cinematography imbues these images with “suggested meaning and intent beyond the obviously stated ones.”
The film features Lanthimos’ signature elements: deadpan humor, strange violence, moral ambiguity, precise framing, and carefully calibrated performances emphasizing restraint and psychological complexity over conventional emotional expression. However, Bugonia represents what TheWrap termed Lanthimos “operating on autopilot,” with director and lead actress enjoying obvious creative delight in transgressing conventional boundaries while mining entertainment from disturbing material.
That Hashtag Show described Bugonia as hitting “new heights,” suggesting that despite operating within established patterns, Lanthimos achieves something approaching masterpiece status. The deliberate chaotic musical score from Jerskin Fendrik adds layers of meaning, frequently making the film “feel too cheeky for its own good,” yet this tonal instability paradoxically strengthens the film’s commentary on conspiracy culture, corporate malfeasance, and the human tendency toward paranoia as compensation for powerlessness.
Film Information
Title: Bugonia
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Writers: Will Tracy (adaptation), based on Save the Green Planet! by Jang Joon-hwan
Cast: Emma Stone (Michelle Fuller), Jesse Plemons (Teddy), Aidan Delbis (Don), Alicia Silverstone, Stavros Halkias
Cinematographer: Robbie Ryan (VistaVision)
Composer: Jerskin Fendrik
Producer: Ari Aster, Emma Stone
Distributor: Focus Features
Theatrical Release Date: October 24, 2025
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 76-78% (Critics), Strong Audience Response
Sources: Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Rolling Stone, Screen Rant, SlashFilm, Vulture, That Hashtag Show, Los Angeles Times, CTV News, AP News, Rotten Tomatoes, The Guardian, W Magazine, Empire, The Wrap, Metacritic