Written by Will Tracy
Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos
Michelle: "You can't beat me because you are a loser and I'm a winner and that's fucking life!"
In between Christmas movies and TV episode reviews, I'm determined to get a few more award contenders and this was one I wanted to watch more than others.
Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone seem to have found a mutual muse in one another and after their powerhouse collaboration with Poor Things (2023), could Bugonia (2025) hit the same way? It kind of did in its own way.
A remake of Save The Green Planet! (2003) by Jang Joon-hwan, this movie saw Emma Stone playing the role of Auxolith CEO Michelle Fuller. It's a pharmaceutical company she's running and she's been conducting experiments on people to cure diseases. One of those people being a woman named Sandy Gatz (Alicia Silverstone), who was now in a coma.
It's this out one in part that saw Michelle being kidnapped by Sandy's son, Teddy (Jesse Plemons) and his cousin Don (Aidan Delbis). Oh and they're absolutely convinced that she's an alien. Putting the outcome of the original to one side, it was kind of obvious they were going to be right.
Saying that, the movie did try to present an element of doubt. Teddy certainly mistreated Michelle to an extreme that even Don was horrified by his actions. Add into the mix a former babysitter turned cop, Casey Boyd (Stavros Halkias) and there's certainly something unhinged about Teddy. It took very little for Teddy to actually turn into a killer.
As for Michelle, yes she's an alien. There's backstory given on her species being ancestors of humans and while she wasn't responsible for Don's death, she certainly made sure that Teddy was taken out of the equation. The final scene of the movie pretty had Michelle decide the fate of humanity and it wasn't too shocking that she went for the killer option.
- This is the fourth collaboration between Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone. I will review their other two movies next year.
- Michelle and Teddy both had an affinity for bees. The former saw them from an impersonal perspective and the latter was a beekeeper. Michelle's species are Andromedans.
- Standout music: Green Day's Basket Case, Chappell Roan's Good Luck, Babe and Marlene Dietrich's Where Has All The Flowers Gone?
- Chronology: Present day America.
Bugonia (2025) was a quirky delight. I do think as a pairing, both Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone seen to compliment each other very well. This alien invasion felt more like a black comedy with Stone, Plemons and Deibis all firing on cylinders.
Rating: 8 out of 10
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