- Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Alicia Silverstone
- October 31st 2025
- 118
- Yorgos Lanthimos
Emma Stone plays a high-powered CEO who is kidnapped by conspiracy theorists who think she’s an alien.
Since they first worked together on 2018’s The Favourite, Emma Stone and director Yorgos Lanthimos have become frequent collaborators, making three more films almost back-to-back.
In Bugonia, which follows their collaborations Poor Things and Kinds of Kindness, Stone plays a high-powered CEO named Michelle Fuller, who runs a pharmaceutical company named Auxolith.
One day, Michelle is kidnapped by conspiracy theorist Teddy (Jesse Plemons) and his cousin Don (Aidan Delbis) and held captive in their basement because they are convinced that she’s actually an alien sent to Earth to destroy it.
Based on the 2003 South Korean movie Save the Green Planet!, Bugonia is another offbeat, weird and wacky offering from Lanthimos.
It’s more accessible and conventional than some of his more unusual films like Dogtooth and Kinds of Kindness, but it’s still more eccentric than your typical studio film. It is Lanthimos after all!
The concept is excellent, but there is always a risk of an idea quickly running out of steam. Thankfully, that doesn’t happen here, thanks to Will Tracy’s engaging script, which is filled with unpredictable twists and turns, exciting character revelations and plenty of dark humour.
Viewers expecting a straightforward absurdist black comedy should be warned that it actually gets very dark, violent and horrifying in the final act, while the actual ending is sure to divide audiences.
Two-time Oscar winner Stone is unsurprisingly sensational in this role. Typically, the kidnapping victim is the powerless one, but she stays in control of the situation as much as possible, desperately trying to get into their heads and manipulate them.
She also eschews vanity for the part, which involves her shaving her head and being covered in white body lotion for most of the film.
But the most impressive actor in the ensemble is Plemons. Teddy is mentally unwell, and you can’t predict what he’s going to do next because he’s so unhinged. This makes him an unsettling presence.
Conversely, newcomer Delbis – who is autistic like his character – is kind, sweet and easily convinced by both parties.
Considering Poor Things and The Favourite were so well praised, it is a big claim to say that Bugonia is the best Emma Stone-Yorgos Lanthimos collaboration. But it really is a cut above the rest!
In cinemas from Friday 31st October.
By Hannah Wales.
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