Yorgos Lanthimos’ new feature Bugonia is premiering at the Venice Film Festival, and critics are beginning to share their thoughts on this offbeat sci-fi black comedy featuring Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons.
‘Bugonia’: What Critics Are Saying About Yorgos Lanthimos’ Black Comedy Starring Emma Stone
Yorgos Lanthimos’ new feature Bugonia is premiering at the Venice Film Festival, and critics are beginning to share their thoughts on this offbeat sci-fi black comedy featuring Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons.
Reuniting Talents
Bugonia marks a reunion for the director and Stone following the acclaimed Poor Things. In this latest collaboration, an English-language remake of South Korean filmmaker Jang Joon-hwan’s Save the Green Planet!, Stone portrays a high-powered CEO kidnapped by two conspirators (Plemons and Aidan Delbis) who believe she is an alien intent on destroying Earth.
Positive Reactions
The reactions have been largely positive, particularly praising the performances of the actors.
Deadline’s Pete Hammond described the film as a “wild ride” and a return to form for the Greek auteur: “Bugonia is a dizzying, batsh*t-crazy story that ranks right up there with the filmmaker’s best films: Poor Things, The Favourite, Dogtooth, and The Lobster. Each shares a surreal quality with Bugonia, which is also incredibly relevant to today’s misinformation age and the conspiracy theorists lurking in the internet’s deepest corners.”
He added, “bravura turns from both Stone, yet again pulling out all the stops, and a magnificently unhinged Jesse Plemons.”
Critical Insights
Little White Lies acknowledged Hollywood’s inconsistent track record with English-language remakes of East Asian films but was pleasantly surprised: “The droll, disturbing, and unexpectedly moving Bugonia more than justifies its offshoot existence… it is also far less oblique than Lanthimos’ previous works, particularly his collaborations with Efthymis Filippou.”
Indiewire rated the film a B, praising the actors but noting that “Lanthimos’ tenth feature would have been more consistently engaging as a 90-minute film rather than two hours that risk tediousness.”
Vulture highlighted the performances: “Stone is remarkable, emotionally wriggling like a bug pinned to a wall, trying different tactics with this psycho.”
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The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw gave the film three stars, praising its “macabre and amusing” nature but questioning its pacing.
Screen International remarked on the dynamism of Stone and Plemons, calling it “a gloriously gonzo, sharply satirical chamber piece.”
Radio Times awarded it four stars, describing it as “offbeat and outrageous with a serious underlying theme.” The Daily Telegraph gave it five stars, noting it “buzzes with virtuoso mischief.”
Focus Features will release Bugonia in the U.S. at the end of October, having just dropped the first trailer.
Written by Tracy and also starring Stavros Halkias and Alicia Silverstone, Bugonia is produced by Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe, Lanthimos, Stone, Ari Aster, Lars Knudsen, Miky Lee, and Jerry Kyoungboum Ko.
