Bugonia Movie Review: A Dark, Gripping Thriller on America’s Modern Divide

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ (4/5)
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Cast: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Aidan Delbis
Release: 2025
Runtime: 118 minutes

Review

Bugonia is a chilling, emotionally sharp thriller that examines the stark divide between the powerful and the powerless in modern America. Yorgos Lanthimos reunites with Emma Stone to explore a world where conspiracy thinking and social inequality collide with devastating consequences.

Michelle (Stone) is the glamorous, ruthless CEO of a dominating biotech empire. Her life is the epitome of wealth, beauty, and success — a picture-perfect symbol of the “winners.”

On the opposite side: Teddy (Plemons) and Don (Delbis), two impoverished cousins living in isolation and drowning in digital paranoia. Teddy is convinced Michelle is an alien from Andromeda plotting against humanity. Their solution? Kidnap her and demand she summon her mothership.

But Michelle is nothing like a helpless victim. Her intelligence, ego and suppressed fury become weapons of their own — making this captivity a chilling psychological duel.

Lanthimos masterfully turns the intimate setting into a nerve-tightening pressure cooker. The tone is less outrageous and more personal than some of his past work — darker, sadder, and grounded in the real fractures of the world today.

Performances

• Emma Stone dazzles — cold, charisma-packed, and fearlessly unhinged.

• Jesse Plemons is terrifyingly believable as a man ruled by conviction over logic.

• Aidan Delbis delivers a vulnerable, heartbreaking portrayal.

A late-film twist packs spectacle — whether it’s needed is debatable, but it doesn’t take away from the film’s grip.

Verdict

Bugonia is more a psychological thriller than a satire, dissecting alienation, power imbalance, and conspiracy culture with tension you feel in your bones. It’s unsettling, captivating, and intensely relevant.

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