Key Takeaways

• Plot Overview: The film follows a conspiracy-obsessed beekeeper who believes the CEO of a pharmaceutical company is an alien threatening the planet.
• Director’s Style: Yorgos Lanthimos continues his prolific output with this film, which may not resonate as well as his previous works.
• Performance Highlights: Emma Stone delivers a compelling performance that elevates the film despite its darker themes.
• Cinematic Quality: The film boasts stunning visuals and an evocative soundtrack that enhances its unsettling atmosphere.

PLOT: A conspiracy-obsessed beekeeper (Jesse Plemons) becomes convinced that the CEO (Emma Stone) of a pharmaceutical company is actually an alien whose species is about to destroy the planet.

REVIEW: For such an ambitious auteur, Yorgos Lanthimos is remarkably prolific. After the success of Poor Things, one might assume a director of his stature would take his time choosing a follow-up — but this isn’t even his first film since that one, with his anthology Kinds of Kindness opening just a year ago. Like his other movies, Bugonia gives his cinematic muse Emma Stone a great role to sink her teeth into, although this oddball, sci-fi-tinged psychological drama/satire likely won’t be embraced as readily as his previous work.

To me, the cinema of South Korea has a very specific tone. No one else quite manages to mix black comedy, pathos, and violence the way they do. That’s why so many American remakes of Korean hits fall flat — Oldboy (Spike Lee’s version), Hide and Seek, My Sassy Girl, and many others. It might also explain why directors such as Bong Joon-ho are never quite as successful working in America as they are back home. Lanthimos, for his part, doesn’t entirely pull off this remake of Save the Green Planet!; he struggles to find a consistent tone. Part of that stems from the sheer unpleasantness of Jesse Plemons’ performance.

While he’s meant to be playing a psychopath, Plemons comes across as so odious in the role of conspiracy-obsessed Teddy Gatz that he’s not an easy character to spend two hours with. Granted, that may be appropriate for the part, but in the Korean film the character had moments of pathos — whereas here, you just want him offscreen. Plemons is a superb actor and goes all in with his performance, but the audience still needs a way in, some kind of emotional anchor. No one in Bugonia provides that — except, at times, Aidan Delbis as Teddy’s cousin Don (Delbis, who is on the autism spectrum, seems to be playing such in the film).

Emma Stone’s Michelle Fuller is just as monstrous a person as Teddy, but at least she’s a compelling psychopath. Indeed, it’s Stone’s performance that makes Bugonia worth watching. Her take on the self-absorbed influencer-CEO archetype is both hilarious and chilling. She’s a delight to watch as she sings along to Chappell Roan during her commute or passive-aggressively reminds employees that yes, they are totally free to leave at the end of the workday — unless, of course, there’s more work to do.

Stone famously shaved her head for the role, and she deserves credit for her continued willingness to take big risks with Lanthimos’s material. They remain an ideal creative pairing, but Bugonia may be a bridge too far for them. It’s intriguing that Yorgos chose to remake this story at all, though he does make one daring change by gender-swapping the CEO and positioning her tormentor as a man who feels disturbingly incel-adjacent. That twist makes the film more provocative than the original — but is that enough to justify the remake?

Technically, the film is gorgeous, with DP Robbie Ryan once again shooting in the 1.33:1 aspect ratio that’s become an arthouse staple. The soundtrack by Jerskin Fendrix is similarly evocative and unnerving.

In the end, I respect Bugonia for its craft and the total commitment of its performances. But I can’t say it was an easy film to sit through — which, to be fair, isn’t unusual with Lanthimos’s work. Still, when the credits rolled, I wasn’t sure this one was worth the effort.