Bugonia (2025) Review

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

Sometimes, the truth can be right in front of you and it’d be good to be true.


PLOT


Based on Jang Joon-Kwan’s ‘Save the Green Planet!’ or Jigureul jikyeora!, Bugonia follows beekeeper Teddy Gatz and his autistic cousin Don abduct wealthy CEO of Auxolith, Michelle Fuller. Teddy theorizes her to be an extraterrestrial Andromedan intending to destroy the planet,, after a clinical trial put his mother Sandy (Alicia Silverstone) in comatose. Wanting to keep her from escaping, he keeps her in his basement, shaves her head and covers her body in antihistamines cream to keep her from contacting her kind. Although she denies being an alien, he gives her four days to negotiate a meeting with her emperor before the next upcoming lunar eclipse that’ll allow their mothership to enter the atmosphere undetected. Even when she inevitably admits what she is, he chooses to torture her with electricity until discovering her high tolerance of it identifies her as a high ranker member of her kind. Teddy would allow her to come upstairs for dinner, but it would lead to a fight when she doesn’t show true sympathy over his mom. He ends up putting her back in the basement when being visited by the deputy sheriff Casey (Stavros Halkias), who used to babysit him when he was a kid. As he distracts him while showing him his apiary, Michelle offers taking Don to space if he lets her go. Instead, he shoots himself with a shotgun. Casey hears this and Teddy impulsively decides to murder him. When returning to the basement, he is heartbroken losing his cousin but Michelle convinces him to give his mom an antifreeze, believing it to be an antidote. However, Teddy realizes it to be a lie when it kills her in the hospital. Michelle eventually frees himself from restraints and when further looking around the basement, she finds severed parts and binders of several people he’s held captive suspecting to be alien. When Teddy returns home, she reveals the intent of the Andromedans: Humans were created by them out of guilt accidentally causing the extinction of dinosaurs and there was peace with Atlantis until humans experimented with their genome that led to a global nuclear war creating the current race destroying themselves; Andromedans have been trying to guide them from their violent/flawed nature that the Auxolith experiments were part of. Michelle then claims the mothership has all the information needed to save humanity and is willing to give Teddy the meeting he wants. She takes him back to Auxolith headquarters where her closet has a teleporter, but he gets himself killed when his homemade explosive suicide vest goes off by mistake. The explosion knocks Michelle unconscious, but after waking up in an ambulance does she jump out and return to her office, teleporting back to the mothership. Revealing herself to be the Andromedan leader, she concludes with her kind that the human experiment has failed. The film ends with her deciding to pop a bubble like dome that kills all humans on earth, while animal and plant life lives on.


THOUGHTS


When you get into the unorthodox narrative director Yorgos Lanthimos is all about, especially after the hijinks he made out of Poor Things, you just know you’re set for a good time. This one is no exception because for a remake, it’s quite exciting. This one leans into a thriller after the beginning dead pan approach the fear of aliens is a common genre in its own right. Whether or not you’re sure from the beginning that the aliens here are real, you’ll be so intrigued on how the truth unfolds. While I do think the Andromedan costumes are well made, the selling point for me was Robbie Ryan’s cinematography because of how it establishes how the world will always be unpredictable when you’re not paying attention, especially before it ends for each and every one of us. With that being said, this is another standout in Yorgos’ filmography due to a strong script by Will Tracy, we’re able to get the message straight that we are our own worst enemy when it comes to the world ending because we make things worse the more we choose to let either paranoia or narcissism consume us. Through a strong cast, the feeling only becomes stronger of a realization. Jesse Plemons is the kind of actor that gets better with each project he gets part of and it’s no exception here as the leading man. Teddy is definitely the kind of sentimental figure you want to root for due to how relatable it is to lose a loved one. Rather than find a healthy way to move on from what happened to his mom, his paranoia destroys his stability and he refuses to not let her going down in vein. He definitely was onto something when discovering there were aliens roaming around us, but his decision to commit torture and murder was where he loses sympathy because it only worsens the situation. It was definitely was something to not hesitate with Casey since he admitted he was abusive when they were younger, but killing others when he wasn’t sure of them being Andromedans makes him come off psychotic when he he’s just desperate looking for answers. On top of that, the true victim before everyone else dies is his cousin. Aidan Delbis really pulled my heartstrings as Don because he was just too sweet for this world that he was easily manipulated to do Teddy’s bidding without legit proof of what he was onto. He ended up killing himself because he was understandably overwhelmed with all his surrounding that he just wanted to get away from all the chaos that was confusing him. While this is not the way to solve a problem, you can’t blame him wanting out of a situation he never asked to be part of. Sadly, his death was would be be in vein as well due to Teddy forcing himself to make enemies with someone who never intended to wrong him. Emma Stone continues to be a force to be reckoned with and as Michelle, she just takes command and never loses it. In her fifth Oscar nomination, we see her as someone who is detached and simultaneously want to create the improvement we all desire. You can respect for being able to adapt for her survival, but it’s really her pragmatism that distances her from everyone. Had she understood emotion better, she’d have a better grasp on where Teddy is coming from rather than focus on escaping from him. I do believe she would’ve taken him to the mothership for real had the vest not gone off, but I don’t think he would’ve survived the encounter either knowing these aliens had been so protective keeping themselves secret. Seeing how abrupt it was for the human race to drop dead all at once was a surprise because it all feels possible if we keep on worsening things than solving them. Michelle definitely didn’t want it to come to that, but she felt there was nothing left to do after what she went through. And after a gripping decision, all we can hope for is the next generation should there be one to prevent all the wrong we’ve done. In short, Bugonia is a captivating sci fi thriller for just knowing how to open your eyes at the right time, earning its Best Picture nomination in the process. If you like the kind of movies that will surprise you in multiple forms, this one will do it for you.

If you or someone you know is struggling with depression or thoughts of suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.