"Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" - My Review of Yorgos Lanthimos' BUGONIA

*This review will contain SPOILERS*

There are certain filmmakers that when you hear a new work of theirs is soon to arrive, you can't help but get hyped up. I think we officially have a very strong entry in that group of artists with Yorgos Lanthimos, the man who has given us the likes of Dogtooth, The Lobster, The Favourite, and Poor Things.

While Lanthimos has written some of his films, such as Dogtooth and The Lobster, he often will work with other screenwriters to bring their vision to the screen. With his latest film Bugonia, he works with writer Will Tracy, a brilliant satirist who had been a previous editor for The Onion and has worked on such shows/films as Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Succession, and The Menu.

Tracy adapted Bugonia from Jang Hoon-hwan's 2003 Korean film Save the Green Planet back in 2020 with the intention of Jang coming back to direct this remake. Tracy still tried to keep this script as more of a standalone prospect than a beat-by-beat rehash, which also including the producing opting to swap the gender of the central character from a man to a woman.

When Jang dropped out due to health concerns, that is when Yorgos Lanthimos joined the film and brought along his muse Emma Stone to play the lead and Jesse Plemons to play the film's main antagonist.

Stone plays Michelle Fuller, a highly renowned and influential CEO of a pharmaceutical corporation known as Auxolith. When arriving back to her very sleek and modern mansion outside of Atlanta, she is kidnapped by two men: Teddy (Jesse Plemons) and his autistic cousin Don (Aidan Delbis, in his feature debut). They are convinced that Michelle is of an "Andromedan" alien species that has been terrorizing the earth for decades with the goal of eventually destroying humanity...with a particular focus on "Green" terrorism: killing honeybees. 

As a means to prevent Michelle from contacting her "mothership", they shave her hair as a means and cover her in an antihistamine cream as these are considered signal blockers in their eyes. Teddy wants to have a meeting with the Andromedan emperor and wants to use Michelle as a means to negotiate that meeting. His goal is to have their ship enter the Earth's atmosphere dealing a lunar eclipse so it will go undetected. 

*Sidenote: I love that when we see the Earth in the time elapsed interstitials, it appears flat. It seems wholly fitting for the subject matter and people we are dealing with. 

 Teddy is also revealed to be working for Auxolith in their shipping warehouse, and he actually has a direct connection to Michelle beyond the fact he works for her company. Via flashbacks, we learn that Teddy's mother (Alicia Silverstone, in a random cameo) was taking part in a clinical trial of one of Auxolith's new drugs and it leaves her all but catatonic and eventually comatose. 

With the plot in place, what did I think of Bugonia?

In the case of Yorgos Lanthimos, it is clear that with the content he makes, he is bound to leave a lot of people cold. I get the sense that Bugonia is not gathering a lot of passion compared to the likes of The Favourite or Poor Things. If I am being completely candid, I would rank as his 5th best film behind The Favourite, Poor Things, Dogtooth, and The Lobster...but that is no direct slam on Bugonia. It just means that Lanthimos has a pretty high bar and some films just won't reach that high.

Considering even Save the Green Planet! had something of a mixed response despite some passionate fans, it isn't shocking that Bugonia would face a similar fate. I still very much enjoyed it and appreciated the darkly sinister comedic tone that fits so snugly into the worlds that Lanthimos loves to take us into. 

As for the performances, Stone continues to work well as Lanthimos' muse as this is her 4th film with him...although if the film is stolen by anyone, I would argue it is Jesse Plemons as Teddy.

As something of an offbeat actor who has a truly unique screen presence that has made people take notice since his infamous and volatile turn as the villainous Todd on the final season of Breaking Bad, I feel like we are witnessing his best performance to date in Bugonia. I have already made comments like this for other performances, and I will do so here, too. There is still a good chance Plemons could slip into some acting races this year, but it does seem like he might be on the cusp considering Best Actor this year is far more competitive than it's been in a long time. I think it's a shame he doesn't seem to be more in the running as I would totally nominate him for this.

I also want to single out Aidan Delbis as Don. Much like how Stone's character was a gender-swap, so was Don. In the original, this character was a girl who had a very heated and passionate personality, and she took a liking to her partner in crime. Here, they made him a follower of his cousin whom he loves dearly and both Lanthimos and Stone (who served as a producer on the film) hoped to find someone who hadn't acted before to play the role. After his audition and screen test, they adored what he brought to the table and made sure he had all he needed to feel comfortable making his debut. His character is what you could argue is the heart of the film in many ways and considering the fact he is on the autism spectrum, it never felt like were forced to pity him. 

One thing I do appreciate about Tracy's script combined with the direction and performances is how well they work to trick the audience of the film's eventual reveal. 

Everything about a film like this screams that Teddy and Don are crazed conspiracy theorists who kidnapped an innocent woman...but thanks to the conviction of both Stone and Plemons and Delbis in their roles, there are times where you begin to wonder who is right and who is wrong. 

Stone does some of her best work towards the end when she does discover that Plemons' Teddy has captured and murdered multiple people whom he believed to be Andromedans. After pouring over all of his "work", she gives very passionate and descriptive monologue about the history of Andromedans and how they actually caused the mass extension of the dinosaurs and out of guilt, they are also the ones who created humanity and have tried for years to protect humans as a result...and it makes you wonder: is she somehow coming up with this on the fly based on his work she looked over or...was Teddy right all along?

Even the idea of her portal being in her office closet with a calculator being the means of making a signal seems preposterous...only made more convincing as such when Stone's performance screams of a person trying to be convincing that she is telling the truth but isn't. All that is further enhanced when Teddy reveals he is wearing a suicide vest that accidentally detonates and decapitates him. The image of Stone getting knocked unconscious by Teddy's flying head is a sight to behold.

However...Teddy WAS right, and we learn that she is, indeed, an alien.

Not only was he right, but even his spaceship model that he built is eerily similar to the actual ship. We see Stone teleport back to her ship and as she said to Teddy in her monologue, she feels they failed. Humans are, in their eyes, a disaster...so with the pop of a clear dome bubble, she kills human existence...with only animals remaining alive. We get a darkly humorous sequence where see humans lying dead around the world: kids in classrooms, people bathing on the beach, a couple mid coital, car pile-ups on highways...but dogs are roaming free which...yay for them living!

All the while, we get Marlene Dietrich's glorious rendition of the folk song "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" while we see that honeybees are now alive and thriving again.

I don't know...I frankly was pretty pleased with the film. It wasn't perfect, but I do appreciate films that can take on these cynical but humorous tones and succeed. 

Oh, and do I have to call out the score of Jerksin Fendrix who also did the score for Poor Things and Kinds of Kindness. This is another epic piece of work by him that alternates between melodic and glorious to otherworldly and epic. Lanthimos gave him three words for inspiration: bees, basement, and spaceship...and with this, he came up with motifs that worked perfectly. I really hope he gets a Score nomination this year!

So yes, I was rather pleased with Bugonia! It is by no means a masterpiece, but it will likely end up being one of my favorites of 2025 at the very least.

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BUGONIA

RATING: 8.5/10