The 2025 film Bugonia is a crime thriller directed by Yorgos Lanthimos starring actors Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Alicia Silverstone, and Aidan Delbis with his acting debut. It was distributed by Focus Features. The main plot centers around Stone’s character, a wealthy business CEO named Michelle Fuller, being kidnapped by Plemons and Delbis’ characters, two cousins named Teddy and Don respectively. Silverstone plays Teddy’s mother, Sandy. Comedian Stavros Halkias plays Teddy’s former babysitter and now police officer, Casey. The cousins believe in a conspiracy that Michelle is an alien sent to destroy the human race, with Teddy leading the charge of the whole scheme. The film was nominated for a Golden Globe for “Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy”, as well as “Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy” for Jesse Plemons and “Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy” for Emma Stone.
The Cast and Crew
This is the third collaboration between Lanthimos and Stone after Poor Things and Kinds of Kindness, and the second collaboration between Lanthimos and Plemons after Kinds of Kindness. Cinematographer Robbie Ryan returns to work with Lanthimos for a third time, providing solid camera work throughout that ranges from smooth tracking shots following Teddy on his bicycle and still far-away shots taking in the rough situation Michelle endures while under the men’s entrapment. Composer Jerskin Fendrix, who also returns to work with Lanthimos a third time, brings a chilling, yet at times epic, soundtrack to the film. As the film progresses and Teddy grows more frantic around having committed a kidnapping, the music progresses as well, with grand swells in the soundtrack as his bike riding grows more frantic.
The Characters
Aidan Delbis as Teddy’s cousin Don brings humanity and a sense of innocence to an otherwise stressful, gripping situation. Don, much like Delbis, is on the autism spectrum, allowing the character to have a unique perspective compared to Teddy. Throughout the kidnapping, as Teddy gets more intense, Don questions and doubts him at multiple points, protesting to some of the extremities that Teddy begins to commit. Yet, due to Don’s immense admiration of and love for Teddy, he ends up falling back in line with their long-term plan. His series of objections bring a mix of sadness and humanity to the movie, as the living situation of the cousins that is presented to the audience showcase that they only have each other, leading to fear around how the film could ultimately leave the characters’ fates.
Despite the extremes they go to, the spiraling into conspiracy theory and belief in supposed alien life are all fueled by the tragedy and mishandling of Sandy’s health. Grounding the absurdity and instability of the characters’ mental health in such a heartbreaking situation manages to add great conflict to the film, as Teddy blames Michelle Fuller for the state of his mother’s health, yet blows the situation out of proportion by also buying into such a grand conspiracy. His mental state and beliefs are reinforced throughout the film as he is shown listening to podcasts and talks of alien life on his ride to work. His struggles become even clearer with the introduction of Stavros’ character Casey, a police officer who used to babysit Teddy. As the two catch up during several points in the film, it becomes increasingly clear that Casey was a very negative influence on Teddy growing up, adding a heavy dose of dark humor and discomfort due to his past actions. Adding even further tension to their scenes together is the fact that Casey is now a police officer, giving him direct connection to the missing persons case of Michelle Fuller.
At the very center of the story is Stone’s character, renowned pharmaceutical CEO Michelle Fuller. Her performance always leaves the audience on the edge of their seat, as she continuously attempts to find the best means of escape, whether it be through the means of humanity by convincing the cousins she’s just a normal woman or by buying into their conspiracy and claiming to be an alien. Her switching not only manages to put doubt into Don’s head specifically but also leads the audience to question certain moments throughout the film.
A Debate over Dinner
One of the most pivotal scenes in the film occurs when Don and Teddy let Michelle upstairs, sitting down at the dinner table for a meal. This step towards freedom occurs when Teddy begins to believe that Michelle is not just an agent sent by aliens, but actually the queen of the aliens, shifting the context of what all she could accomplish for them. The ensuing debate that occurs at the dinner table, primarily between Teddy and Michelle as Don makes the occasional funny interjection, speaks to the difference in ideologies between the wealthy businesswoman background that Michelle comes from and the rural beekeeping background that Teddy grew up around. While the two briefly bond over bees in the scene, with Teddy’s interest in bees being the very first thing showcased to the audience with the opening scene, they do ultimately still differ over various subjects by the end of the scene. Their back and forth manages to build a heavy tension that eventually explodes by the end of the scene, as Teddy launches himself towards Michelle to attack her over various statements she makes about his mother, whom she had a brief history with attempting to help with her illness. The distress of the fight leads Don to scrambling to his fight, shotgun in hand, conflicted over not wanting his cousin to hurt Michelle while also wanting to protect Teddy.
Ultimately, the dinner scene between Teddy and Michelle stands out as a showcase of the film’s theme, displaying the variety in human ideology and how conspiracy theory can warp one’s view of the world. Despite the fact that the two come to a brief compromise over their admiration for bees, they ultimately still fall back into their bickering and debate, as tension rises once again. Don, rather fittingly, is sat in the middle between the two of them, attempting to keep things calm and collected between the two and ultimately trying to separate them after the fighting begins. The film showcases human struggle, mental illness, and the danger of rabbit hole conspiracy theories, while also showing how humans with different ideologies aren’t so different from each other, sharing in common interests and subjects.
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