Lanthimos's Kidnapping Chronicle Strikes a Chord: Bugonia Review

Recent collaborators Yorgos Lanthimos, Jesse Plemons and Emma Stone have done it again. What is it? The most bonkers, thrilling and eccentric thing you’ve watched recently. Bugonia is an out of this world journey. Set in small-town America and exploring themes of capitalism, exploitation, corporate culture and conspiracy, Bugonia is jaw-dropping, edge of your seat goodness. The film is visceral— I hadn’t felt this unsettled and intrigued at the theatre since viewing The Substance, my favorite film of 2024. Adapted by Will Tracy from the South Korean film Save the Green Planet! (2003), Lanthimos expertly directs this absurdist film in his typical style, leaning into the dark and odd to highlight humanity's deepest flaws. With an all-time performance from Jesse Plemons and breakthrough performance by Aidan Delbis, Bugonia explores big themes, packs tons of punches and constantly leaves the audience guessing.

The film follows Teddy Gatz (Jesse Plemons), a country boy who cares for and lives with his intellectually disabled cousin, Don (Aidan Delbis). Teddy works for an Amazon-like pharmaceutical corporation called Auxolith at their packaging warehouse and in his free time enjoys beekeeping. Although it’s unclear how, Teddy has fallen hard for a conspiracy theory: Auxolith’s CEO Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone) is an alien called an Andromedan sent to kill honeybees, wreak havoc on Earth, and ultimately dominate the human race. To save all humans, Teddy convinces Don to help him kidnap Michelle and hold her hostage as a way to reach the Andromedan mothership. After her successful kidnapping, Teddy and Don take odd precautions to ensure Michelle has no way to call for help or contact the mothership; they shave her head, believing she can contact Andromedans via the hair on her head and ask her to cover herself in antihistamine cream, another way of blocking contact with others Andromedans.

For days, Michelle tries different tactics such as leveraging her position of power, faux sympathy, bargaining and out of desperation, even pretending she is an Andromedan. Although some of this pleading starts to wear down Don, Teddy is steadfast in his belief that she’s a villain and doesn’t give in to her pleas. As the story begins to unfold, the audience learns that Michelle and Teddy’s relationship has more of a history and depth than it first seems. This shift in their history leads us to question everything we thought we knew about Michelle and Teddy. The central question remains front and center of your mind as you learn more about the twisted dynamics between them: could Teddy’s theory be right?

The stakes get raised with each bicycle ride through the countryside in this tumultuous kidnapping chronicle and there isn’t a moment where it felt like it was obvious where the story would go next. The audience is constantly being thrust into different directions on whether to feel sympathy for Teddy or Michelle. The film dynamically weaves through themes of grief, exploitation, conspiracy and economic class dynamics. For example, it’s easy to pin Teddy as a typical conspiracy theory nut-case who fell into the wrong online crowd but Lanthimos flips this dynamic on its head, channeling empathy and understanding as to why Teddy might believe in Andromedan and why the threat feels so large to him. It’s also easy to label Teddy as dumb or naive in comparison to Michelle—after all, Michelle is CEO of the company that Teddy is only a package handler for. Bugonia highlights stereotypes about these different themes solely to question why they exist and recognize the humanity present within each character outside of their stereotype. 

Bugonia at its core is a social commentary and in terms of social commentaries from this year, Eddington came to mind as well. What Eddington accomplishes with elements of horror and realistic situations, Aster’s signatures, Bugonia accomplishes with absurdism and humor.

As our country moves towards further polarization politically and socially, absurdism supports the overarching theme of how bad the world is right now in a way I don’t think realism can quite capture. Eddington takes the approach of being right on the nose, having opposing political candidates as the main characters and addressing political movements head-on like Black Lives Matter and COVID-19 mask mandates. Bugonia, however, takes place in a world that isn’t quite our own but mimics ours – it goes one step further every time you think it may tone down or pull away. Each time it feels it’s stepping into realism, it takes a leap into the absurd and does so beautifully, in a way Lanthimos consistently accomplishes.

The social media promotion for this hit it out of the park and played into the movie so well. The Auxolith LinkedIn page with posts profiling their executive team, CEO Michelle Fuller on the cover of Forbes and even posts referencing the disappearance of Michelle. The Human Resistance Headquarters website has more information about the conspiracy theory Teddy believes in and points to reasons why Michelle was an Andromedan such as her hair density and slight overbite. Styled like a true underground conspiracy website with bold colored text and simplistic web design, the Human Resistance HQ website gives viewers a more in-depth look at Teddy’s theories and evidence for his beliefs. Playing into the lore of the film and expanding on the Bugonia universe in this concrete way, sparks curiosity about the film and brings the overt theme of conspiracy to the forefront.

Lanthimos could not have done a better job with Bugonia and it certainly exceeded any expectations (and reservations) I had going into the film. This film should absolutely be an Oscar contender for multiple aspects of the film including direction, screenplay and best actor to name a few. It’ll be interesting to see if it receives Oscar nods though Lanthimos, Plemons and Stone are no stranger to nominations and wins. Bugonia is Lanthimos, Plemons and Stone at their best – which makes for an incredibly powerful piece of film that should be analyzed, appreciated and most importantly, enjoyed!

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