Bugonia and the Imaginative Hell of Yorgos Lanthimos

By Augie Brightman

The great Yorgos Lanthimos has spent the last decade redefining the standards of transgressive surrealism, taking his audiences on unforgettable, bizarrely disturbing trips. In the plot of his 2015 film The Lobster, if one does not find a romantic partner within 45 days, then they will be turned into an animal of their choosing. The absurdity of the sentence I have just written is what one soon becomes accustomed to when watching Lanthimos’ work. He goes far beyond his limits in terms of how creative a director can be. When creating an entire world to place the audience in, Lanthimos always defies what is possible, laughing in the face of what is typically deemed “too far.” That is not to say that his work is gratuitous, but he is never constrained when there is purpose in his storytelling. 

His newest film, Bugonia (2025), is a loose remake of the South-Korean sci-fi comedy Save the Green Planet (2003), directed by Jang Joon-hwan. Lanthimos again works with Emma Stone, making it their fourth collaboration together, following The Favourite (2018), Poor Things (2023), and Kinds of Kindness (2024). Like De Niro and Scorsese, the pair fit together like a strange glove. It is amazing how much versatility Stone gives in her performances when paired with Lanthimos’ off-beat humor and placed within his surreal mind, but it works seamlessly and Bugonia is no exception. With his newest output, which also includes the ever-talented Jesse Plemmons (Teddy) and introduces Aidan Delbis (Don), Lanthimos experiments with a much more minimal and tight atmosphere. Whereas The Favourite and Poor Things were much more expansive in setting and plot (with Poor Things practically taking place around the entire world), Bugonia is smaller in scale and yet just as rich in flavor. In short, Bugonia is about two conspiracy obsessed cousins, Teddy and Don, who kidnap Michelle Fuller, who they believe to be an alien that is set out to destroy all human civilization. The film is similar to both sides of the Lanthimos spectrum: it is darkly comedic like Poor Things and The Lobster, but also fairly disturbing, similar to The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017) and Dogtooth (2009).

Yorgos Lanthimos is one of the best visionary filmmakers working today, partly because of his own personal style being presented on all floors. Lanthimos, along with Ari Aster, Robert Eggers, and Julia Ducournau, are some of the best cases for modern auteurism. There are people who claim that modern cinema is not as creative or challenging as it used to be, but filmmakers like these laugh in the face of those comments. Similar to his previous works, Bugonia is filled with memorable shots that help carry a tense atmosphere. With Lanthimos being blunt in terms of theme and visuals, we are perfectly placed into the world of the film without it feeling overbearing. While his brand of violence and disturbing nature is blunt, it feels appropriate to the narrative. With most great filmmakers, there is a rule that every frame must serve a purpose to their film, and Lanthimos is a prime example of this. Thematically, this film compares to Kinds of Kindness and The Killing of a Sacred Deer in its exploration of mental manipulation and the results of trauma. In this film, the audience is not spoon-fed what the characters are thinking or what led them to be who they are, but it does not shy away from it either. It is not played for laughs and there are some very disturbing implications regarding characters’ past actions, as well as what we actually see on-screen. To give the audience the full effect, the Lanthimos films do not sugar-coat what it is presenting to us. When something terrible happens, one is supposed to react with shock or disgust, but is completely purposeful to the story at hand. Lanthimos understands this and it is why his films always succeed in their transgressive absurdism. Bugonia, as well as the rest of the catalog, is not worth missing out on.