If Yorgos Lanthimos ever decided to host a TED Talk, it would probably start with a dead cow, end with bees, and leave the audience both horrified and applauding. His latest film, Bugonia, takes that exact energy — unhinged, hilarious, and oddly profound — and channels it into a biting, dark comedy perfectly suited for our age of conspiracies and digital dread. It’s Lanthimos’ most accessible work yet, but don’t worry: it’s still every bit as weird and wonderful as you’d expect.
The story follows Teddy (Jesse Plemons, delivering his best mix of menace and melancholy since I’m Thinking of Ending Things) and his cousin Don (newcomer Aidan Delbis), two basement-dwelling “believers” who’ve gone a bit too far down the dark-web rabbit hole. They’re convinced that Michelle (Emma Stone), a high-powered pharmaceutical CEO, is secretly an alien bent on destroying humanity. Naturally, their solution is to kidnap her, chain her in a basement, shave her head, and slather her in anti-alien lotion. You know… as one does.
From that absurd premise, Bugonia spirals into a full-blown psychological showdown. It becomes a high-stakes battle not just between captor and captive, but between delusion and reason, empathy and apathy, reality and the warped hall of mirrors that passes for truth these days. Lanthimos, working again with DP Robbie Ryan, shoots it all in sumptuous VistaVision, making even a damp basement look operatic.
Stone, who by now could be considered the high priestess of Lanthimos-filmland (The Favourite, Poor Things), is phenomenal here. Her Michelle is a blend of razor-sharp intelligence and eerie calm, but is definitely terrifyingly composed. There’s a moment where she stares down Teddy mid-rant, eyes glinting like glass, and you genuinely can’t tell who’s in control. Stone gives her Michelle layers of irony and vulnerability. She’s magnificent.
Plemons, meanwhile, matches her every step of the way. His Teddy is a man trapped inside his own head, filled with logic that only makes sense to himself. Though there are plenty throughout the film, he doesn’t play the role for laughs, but rather as a portrait of paranoia pushed past the point of no return. Sadly, we all know someone like Teddy. Together, Stone and Plemons turn what could’ve been a one-note hostage farce into a temperamental duel of wills. It’s Misery meets Dr. Strangelove with a sprinkle of The Twilight Zone, thrown in for good measure.
What makes Bugonia so alluring is how funny and frightening it is at once. Lanthimos doesn’t mock conspiracy theorists or corporate overlords. Nope. He skewers everyone. The film’s real target is the modern condition itself. How we all live in bubbles that feed us certainty and breed suspicion. Every frame buzzes (pun fully intended) with the absurdity of a world where nobody trusts anyone, everyone’s sure they’re right, and no one wants to listen to the other side.
And then there’s the title. Bugonia refers to an ancient Greek myth about bees being born from the carcasses of cows — a grotesque but oddly hopeful image. Out of rot comes renewal. Out of madness, maybe, comes meaning. That’s the magic trick Lanthimos successfully pulls off here. Beneath the chaos, the head-shaving, and the alien accusations, the film finds something heartbreakingly human: a yearning for connection in a world that’s lost its hive mind.
Funny, tragic, and weirdly cathartic, Bugonia might just be the perfect film for right now, when every day online feels like a basement interrogation and every headline reads like satire. Lanthimos has made a movie that captures the madness of modern life and turns it into art that stings, buzzes, and ultimately, heals.
It’s a cosmic comedy of errors, a paranoid parable, and a reminder that maybe, just maybe, today’s world has made us all a little alien after all.
MPAA Rating: R.
Runtime: 118 mins
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Writer: Will Tracy
Cast: Jesse Plemons; Aidan Delbis; Emma Stone
Genre: Sci-fi | Comedy
Tagline: It all starts with something magnificent.
Memorable Movie Quote: "You're a credit to your species, Teddy, truly."
Distributor: Focus Features
Official Site:
Release Date: November 7, 2025
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date:
Synopsis: Two conspiracy-obsessed young men kidnap the high-powered CEO of a major company, convinced that she is an alien intent on destroying planet Earth.
