Review: Bugonia (Fantastic Fest 2025)

25 December, 2025 William Eguizabal 0 Comments 4 categories

TItle: Bugonia
MPA Rating: R
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Starring: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Aidan Delbis
Runtime: 1 hr 58 mins

What It Is: Michelle (Stone) is the CEO of a highly successful pharmaceutical company. Teddy (Plemons) is a man who blames her for his mother Sandy (Alicia Silverstone) being in a coma. He also happens to be a highly unhinged conspiracy theorist. His theory is that aliens are among us and that Michelle is one of them. Teddy will go to any means necessary to prove he is right. When he kidnaps Michelle, he plans to expose her as an alien and reveal that they are living among us.

What We Think: I think I prefer it when Yorgos just does his own thing. This film is an adaptation of the 2003 movie Save the Green Planet. Screenwriter Will Tracy does a respectable job adapting the original screenplay, but it did not fully work for me. First and foremost, the film is about ten minutes too long. There is a point toward the end that would have made for a less satisfying, but more appropriate, ending.

The film is grotesquely violent, and that actually works in its favor. Teddy’s obsession feels uncomfortably close to people who actually exist in the real world, and I think the way the film ends is an issue because of that. I will not go any further into it, as I want to avoid spoilers.

Our Grade: B+, This is a very good film, but it falls just short of true excellence. For me, it does not hold up against Lanthimos’ previous work, and it does not even really feel like a film he made. I loved the decision to cast a truly neurodivergent performer in Aidan Delbis opposite Plemons and Stone, as it gave their interactions a sense of legitimacy.

What the film has to say about the current state of the world is refreshing, even if it can feel like a bit much while we are still very much “in it.” Nonetheless, this is a film that will thrill audiences and maybe even disgust them a little. Sometimes it is nice to have your reality challenged, and Yorgos clearly revels in that idea.