Venice 2025: Yorgos Lanthimos’ ‘Bugonia’ is Another Clever Mindfck

Venice 2025: Yorgos Lanthimos’ ‘Bugonia’ is Another Clever Mindfck

by Alex Billington
August 29, 2025

The always provocative mad genius Yorgos Lanthimos is back again with another movie to mess with our minds! But this one is much more important than his more playful creations. Bugonia is Lanthimos 10th feature film so far – and one of his best yet. It’s not as weird or confusing as Dogtooth, and it’s not as bizarre or wacky as Poor Things, nor is it as playful or witty as The Favourite. It’s actually one of Lanthimos’ most direct and accessible films – mainly because the premise is specific, following one path towards an ultimate reveal. Bugonia is Yorgos’ clever remake of a Korean movie titled Save the Green Planet! (from 2003). His take on this story is quite similar, following the original script closely with a few changes & tweaks that fit Yorgos’ sentiments. Above all else, I think it’s a remarkably fun and fresh new version of this story, with an improved finale and better performances from the cast as they all get lost in the madness of the situation.

Similar to Dogtooth but unlike in Poor Things, Bugonia takes place mostly in confined spaces and simple locations – primarily at the house of this man named Teddy. Jesse Plemons stars as Teddy, a beekeeper who decides that he must kidnap the CEO of a powerful pharmaceutical company. His cousin Don, played by Aidan Delbis, is recruited into his conspiracy plot and off they go to grab her. Emma Stone co-stars as Michelle, the power woman girlboss CEO who is picked up by these two guys. They believe she is an alien from Andromeda controlling Earth and all the people. Teddy is smart enough to get her into his basement and lock her up there, keeping the investigation away as he tries to get her to admit the truth and prepare a message so they leave Earth alone. Of course it gets kooky, and as time goes on, Teddy and Don start to lose control of the situation, and Michelle starts to figure out what the best escape plan is. But the question still remains: is she an alien? Or are these guys just super crazy? The film sticks to this premise, same as the one from Save the Green Planet!, and for most of the runtime we don’t get many answers to the many questions.

Minor spoilers from here on. Without giving away everything, Bugonia is going to be a challenging film for many people to grasp and not get upset watching. Mainly because for most of the movie you’re watching too crazy conspiracy nuts doing crazy things to a woman in hopes they’ll get her to reveal the truth so they can be the ones to save the planet. Supposedly. It requires a big ask of the audience to have different feelings by the end and to go back and make sense of and – most importantly – rethink everything that came before. Many viewers will not want to do this – their visceral, emotional reaction to the kidnapping and everything that is happening is going to be the dominant emotion no matter. But this is ultimately the entire point of both Bugonia and Save the Green Planet!. Humans are so caught up in these emotions we often refuse to see the bigger picture and refuse to understand what it really take to save the entire planet and to give all humans a better life. The question of how to solve climate change is complex, and this movie is clearly not attempting to answer that directly because it is just a sci-fi fantasy story, but it is also a reminder that we’re just not capable of realizing that this planet is being destroyed by extremely dumb humans. And so it goes…

The thing about Bugonia is that it’s just a movie – this is not happening for real and we shouldn’t interpret it in that way. And good movies are supposed to make you think, they’re supposed to stir up emotions & make you wonder. One of the issues with this Lanthimos movie is that it gets a bit slow in the middle, dragging out the “what the heck is happening” middle section of this kidnapping, because it’s set at this home & these two guys are such goofballs you’re just waiting for it all to unravel. It’s easy to misinterpret and get upset at this movie, and many early reactions I’ve seen so far have already indicated this is happening. Among many intriguing ideas it brings up, I really do think Bugonia is commenting on the kind of people who have a “but this adds nothing new” attitude and who are more obsessed with getting upset at who or how something important is being said than WHAT is really happening to our planet because we’re destroying it. And that is reiterated within the last 15 minutes of the film, along with Lanthimos’ song choice right at the end. “When will they ever learn?” Probably never, sadly. And while I don’t expect this movie to change anyone’s minds, I am glad Lanthimos has retold this story in order to reiterate the very bold statement this script is making.

As for the technical aspects, of course Lanthimos is a master filmmaker and is always capable of presenting a film that is gorgeous to look at and listen to – with another unique score by Jerskin Fendrix. Featuring some vivid, wide angle cinematography by his regular DP Robbie Ryan, which works sometimes, though it doesn’t feel as expansive or as majestic as Poor Things or The Favourite. Bugonia is less of a movie that is meant to be entertaining, considering we’re watching a kidnapping for nearly two hours, as it is meant to be deeply thought-provoking and prickly. I seriously hope audiences are willing to engage with it on that level, to interpret it correctly. And let the final message land with the veracity it’s designed to so that maybe, just maybe, we can all figure out what is really required to save this beautiful Earth before we destroy it for good.

Alex’s Venice 2025 Rating: 8.5 out of 10
Follow Alex on Twitter – @firstshowing / Or Letterboxd – @firstshowing

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