When I walked into the theatre on a Tuesday afternoon to see Bugonia, I was not sure if I was going into a science fiction movie or a psychological thriller. It was both apparently, even though it leaned much more to the latter. For a movie that is literally about aliens, Bugonia feels incredibly grounded in a reality not too different from our own. Bugonia, Yorgos Lanthimos’s 2025 film based on the 2003 Korean film Save the Green Planet! takes us into the realm of conspiracy, trauma and apocalypse in a movie unlike any that came out this year.
The film follows Jesse Plemons as our conspiracy-theorist protagonist Teddy and his autistic cousin Don, played by Aidan Delbis in his first role in a feature film. Teddy is convinced that an alien race called the Andromedans are not only present on Earth but are also the cause of the all the issues that plague it. Teddy, along with a hesitant Don, kidnap Michelle, the CEO of a large pharmaceutical corporation, whom they suspect to be an Andromedan. The titular extra-terrestrial suspect is played by Emma Stone in one of her most convincing roles to date. Michelle’s kidnapping was an attempt to get her to contact her mothership on the night of the lunar eclipse so that they could send a message to leave Earth.
No other movie that I have watched has quite had me on the edge of my seat in the same way Bugonia did. Throughout the entire film, the question of, “Is she really an alien?” was constantly on my mind, and as soon as I concluded that she was or wasn’t, the movie would quickly give me a reason to think otherwise.
The acting is one of the primary reasons this suspense is held so well throughout the film. Plemons portrays the perfect conspiracy theorist in the form of Teddy, being both calculated and constantly on the verge of insanity. This makes his interactions with the equally calculating, but much calmer, Michelle feel almost physical, with a tension that seems like it will snap at any moment.
While tense, the absurdity and irony of these scenes often give way to humour. The movie is labelled a comedy after all, and the theatre was laughing throughout the movie. Awkwardly, uncomfortably laughing, maybe, but laughing nonetheless.
For a movie as uncomfortable as Bugonia, it remains visually striking and beautiful. From its opening shots of honeybees and flowers to its grainy yet colourful depictions of lower middle-class life, its hair-raising basement scenes and its apocalyptic sci-fi finale, Bugonia finds itself as one of the rare movies with a completely unique visual identity. This is, in large part, thanks to the movie being filmed on 35mm VistaVision cameras, a format that has not been used to shoot the entirety of a movie since 1961.
Despite its beauty, Bugonia remains heavy and serious in the places it needs to be. In the film, Teddy’s mother has fallen chronically ill, which is blamed on Michelle’s company. Teddy struggles with the trauma of his mother’s illness throughout the film, often provoked by Michelle and lashing out at her in some of the tensest scenes in the film. This trauma manifests itself as the main plot points of the film. Both Teddy and Don often talk about how once the aliens leave, their lives will go back to what they were before — good.
This placing of blame on a malevolent force outside of human control is the carrying force for the film’s underlying narrative. Whether it is the aliens causing the bees to die or brainwashing the population, or maybe just the person in front of you in line causing you to be late, don’t we all want something easy to blame our problems on? This question culminates in the climax of the film, which asks the ultimate question — will the end of humanity come at the hands of aliens or ourselves?
Bugonia’s witty dialogue, riveting suspense and insightful ideas are able to blossom into a fantastical black comedy which manages to be both incredibly charming and terribly jarring at the same time.
