Bugonia is less a movie than a sensation—one you’ll feel in your chest, your head, and your brain. It’s a cinematic bee sting: brief, unforgettable, and burning long after it’s ended.
In Bugonia (2025), Emma Stone delivers a mesmerizing, bald-headed performance as Michelle—a high-powered pharmaceutical CEO kidnapped by conspiracy-obsessed beekeepers convinced she’s an alien bent on annihilating Earth. Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, this bizarre, satirical sci-fi thriller explores environmental collapse, corporate malfeasance, and human delusion with dark humor and surreal flair.
Review: Bugonia
In the dreamlike, unsettling universe of Yorgos Lanthimos, Bugonia lands like a sting. A remake of the cult South Korean film Save the Green Planet! (2003), Lanthimos’s version is a neon hallucination—brutal, bizarre, and achingly present. Billed as a dark comedy, it flirts with horror, political satire, and emotional ruin
Plot & Tone
The film hinges on a singular, ludicrously compelling premise: Teddy (Jesse Plemons), a grief-stricken beekeeping conspiracy theorist, abducts Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone), CEO of a Big Pharma conglomerate, convinced she’s an extraterrestrial plotting humanity’s demise. This kidnapping becomes an allegorical microcosm—an existential trial of capitalist arrogance, ecological urgency, and collective paranoia. As Lanthimos tells AP News, it’s less dystopia and more “reflections of our real-world concerns”.
Performances: Stone’s Poise, Plemons’s Paranoia
Emma Stone is the film’s balletic eye through chaos. She shaves her head for the role—a gesture immersive both visually and emotionally, inspired by witnessing her mother’s hair loss during chemotherapy. Stone’s Michelle oscillates between cold authority and fragile humanity, anchoring the film’s absurdity with undeniable gravitas.
Plemons, calling the role “the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” delivers Teddy as a high-strung, wounded zealot, torn between violent conviction and desperate sincerity. Their interactions—and the thin, trembling line between captor and captivated—are the film’s thrumming heartbeat.
The Directorial Vision
Visually, Lanthimos stakes his claim on surrealism again—each scene is edged in oddness, from insectoid symbolism to disquieting domestic tableaux. The score by Jerskin Fendrix shreds the veneer of normalcy with unsettling orchestral bursts. The title Bugonia, referencing the ancient belief that bees emerge from oxen carcasses, suggests unnatural cycles of creation and decay—a potent metaphor for both ecological and human collapse.
Critical Reactions: Rave, Rethink, Recoil
At its Venice premiere, Bugonia ignited the festival circuit—with a staggering six-minute, fifty-second standing ovation signaling serious awards buzz. Reviews range from dazzled admiration to questioning introspection:
-
Robert Daniels (RogerEbert.com): “A film about aliens judging the rottenness of our species… no force is as destructive as human selfishness”.
-
Marshall Shaffer (The Playlist): “A masterclass in directorial control… blissfully bonkers”.
-
Peter Bradshaw (The Guardian): “Macabre and amusing… Stone delivers a predictably strong performance… but the long buildup sometimes struggles to justify the tragic ending”.
-
Megan McLachlan (The Contending): “Elevated B-movie horror… best seen in a full theater”.
-
Cadena SER (Spanish media): Calls it “a failed, hopeless black comedy… the acting saves what feels like shallow execution”.
Attribute Details Genre Absurdist Science Fiction Dark Comedy Release Year 2025 (Venice premiere Aug 28; U.S. limited Oct 24; wide release Oct 31) Director Yorgos Lanthimos Screenwriter Will Tracy Producers Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe, Yorgos Lanthimos, Emma Stone, Ari Aster, Lars Knudsen, Miky Lee, Jerry Kyoungboum Ko Starring Emma Stone (Michelle Fuller), Jesse Plemons (Teddy), Aidan Delbis (Don), Stavros Halkias (Casey), Alicia Silverstone (Sandy) Cinematography Robbie Ryan Editing Yorgos Mavropsaridis Music Jerskin Fendrix Production Companies Square Peg, CJ ENM, Fruit Tree Enterprises, Element Pictures Distributor / Studio Focus Features (US), CJ ENM (Korea), Universal Pictures (International) Budget Not publicly disclosed Runtime 117 minutes
