Yorgos Lanthimos is a prolific director who has been nominated for multiple Academy Awards, including in the Best Picture category for his 2025 release “Bugonia.” Starring Emma Stone as a biopharmaceutical CEO and Jesse Plemmons as an incel conspiracy theorist, the movie follows the two as Plemmons’ character tries to get Stone’s to admit to being an alien and to take him to her leader. It is absurd and incredible in every regard. I must warn you, spoilers ahead!
Stone’s Oscar nomination for Michelle Fuller is absolutely deserved. Throughout the film, she delivered an incredible performance, confusing not only Jesse Plemmons’ Teddy Gatz, but the audience. As a watcher, I was completely unsure of what to believe. She had convinced me both that she was an alien and that she was perfectly human, and Teddy’s reactions and insistence both for and against her claims only added to the joyful confusion. Unfortunately, Jesse Plemmons didn’t get nominated for an Academy Award, and I honestly think his performance was just as good, if not better than Stone’s. His character should’ve been unlikeable by all means, but he had me rooting for him the entire time. Even when Teddy was exposed to be a serial killer upon Michelle breaking free and investigating his house, I still wanted him to find out the truth about her.
My favorite part about “Bugonia,” aside from the phenomenal acting, was most certainly the score by Jerskin Fendrix. The music he created was incredibly aligned with all of “Bugonia’s” intense moments, emphasizing the high tension between Michelle and Teddy. It paired well with the cuts from beautiful cinematography to brutal gore, and was rightfully nominated for the Best Original Score Oscar.
Supporting performances from Aidan Delbis and Stavros Halkias added to the tense environment of “Bugonia,” and even with limited screentime, added to the mystery behind Michelle Fuller’s identity. Every character had depth and their own story, with Delbis’ Don aiding in his cousin Teddy’s downfall and Halkias’ Casey Boyd being a stark obstacle to Teddy’s mission.
Teddy went from accusing a resistant Michelle of being an alien, to insisting that her confession was a lie, to declaring that she was alien royalty. Michelle remained calm and composed the entire time, even up until her final confession, where she told Teddy of her species’ plan to experiment on humans for Earth’s benefit. His violent death in her office closet is unclear whether it was a fluke or if she really did mean to send him to her spaceship, as it is revealed moments later that the closet really was a transporter to a spacecraft. The entire time, Michelle really was the leader of the aliens, and the film ends as her council chooses to end the human “experiment,” kill all of mankind, and leave the Earth to waste away.
My favorite part about “Bugonia,” Every part of “Bugonia” was an emotional journey due to fantastic directing, acting, sound design, writing, and cinematography. The mysteries are part of what makes it so incredible, and the movie left me with questions that are fun to ponder. I sincerely hope that Emma Stone wins the Oscar she was nominated for, along with everyone else involved in the film that was nominated. This year will have tough competition with “Sinners,” “Hamnet,” “One Battle After Another,” and “Marty Supreme” also being nominated for Best Picture, but I hope that “Bugonia” pulls through to win the well-deserved award. Not many movies have the ability to keep you engaged and thinking like “Bugonia” does, and it’ll remain in your mind for a long time after. After collaborating on “Poor Things,” “The Favourite,” and “Kinds of Kindness,” it also proves one more thing: Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos absolutely need to keep making movies together.
