Lanthimos’ New Provocative Psychological Thriller Pushes Boundaries
Written by Isabella Halteman. Graphic by Laura Garcia Gomez.
On the second night of the 2025 Savannah Film Festival, Yorgos Lanthimos’ new film “Bugonia” took the Lucas Theatre screen by storm. The film stars powerhouse actress Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons, whose performances are always stocked full of calculated emotion. It’s the fourth installment of the Lanthimos-Stone cinematic universe, with their journey including “The Favourite” (2018), “Poor Things” (2023), “Kinds of Kindness” (2024) and getting all the way to now “Bugonia.” Lanthimos is clearly one of the many directors who likes to collect actors and develop strong collaborative relationships with them throughout his different films. Stone and Plemons are among this group, as well as Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Olivia Colman, Colin Farrell and many more.
A special screening of this movie was done in Culver City, Calif., where you could see the movie for free but only with a bald head. They could’ve gone BYOBH (bring your own bald head), but they were kind enough to provide an on-site barber to help movie-goers with the qualifications. If anything is dedicated to fan behavior, I would say that is.
This film was written by Will Tracy, a screenwriter for the HBO show “Succession,” and is a remake of the 2003 South Korean film “Save the Green Planet!” I will not be giving spoilers, but a rough description of the plot includes the CEO (Stone) of a major biomedical company, Auxolith, who is kidnapped by a conspiracy theorist (Plemons) and his cousin Don (Aidan Delbis), because they believe she is an alien. Convinced she is a part of an invasive alien species called the “Andromedans,” here to take over Earth and the human species, they shave her hair (to keep her from contacting her mothership, of course) and lock her in their basement, interrogating her.
Getting added to the plethora of movies being made nowadays about the possible end of the world (wonder where they get that idea), “Bugonia” showcases just how dangerous chatter on the internet can be. Giving confidence to crazies all over the world to preach their ideas louder and proving just how far theories can go. But it is about much more than just conspiracy theories; the film is about humanity, the human condition and a reflection on events happening around us every day. The film sets the characters up in the beginning, showcasing their daily habits and starkly different lifestyles prior to the kidnapping. The visual imaging presented by Lanthimos is genius and adds to the whole experience, immersing the audience in the crazy storyline. Stone is framed by high angles with her face tilted up, and Plemons is framed by the opposite. Contrasting their power dynamics, social status and characters.
The humor of this film is so well crafted and special, helping to keep the audience captivated between the shocking and dark story. The whiplash between laughing at a line or an awkward integration to being horrified by a scene painted by Lanthimos is a very human experience and a testament to the intentions behind his vision. It is a very entertaining, complex, dark and funny story, which is not something you can say about a lot of movies or pieces of media in general.
But talk about a theater-going experience, if you get the chance to see this film at a theater with other people around you, please do; reacting together to this masterpiece will not disappoint. And getting to see it with the Savannah Film Festival’s passionate and reactive audience is an experience I will hold onto forever.
Isabella Halteman is a Senior Acting Major with a minor in Musical Theatre. She joined District as a contributor her Freshman year. Now, as District’s Copy Chief, she leads the copy team in editing and publishing articles on our website. She enjoys writing for her “Prose Pages” column and working on creative nonfiction essays. Outside of school, you can find her singing in her car, baking, cooking and watching old movies.
