Film Review - Bugonia

I recently had a chance to watch a movie that popped up on my radar called Bugonia. The teasers and trailers for this movie did their jobs.

They piqued my interest.

Let's get into it.

As always, spoiler alert so if you haven't watched the movie yet, maybe come back after you did.

Title: Bugonia

Release Date: October 31, 2025

Director: Yorgos Lanthimos

Screenplay: Will Tracy

Starring: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Aidan Delbis, Stavros Halkias, Alicia Silverstone.

Run Time: 1 hr 59 mns

Genres: Comedy, Science Fiction, Dark Comedy, Crime

Overview: Two conspiracy-obsessed men kidnap the CEO of a major company when they become convinced that she's an alien who wants to destroy Earth.

This is somewhat of a difficult review to write. I felt the story, dialogue, and talent was top tier. Jesse Plemons and Emma Stone are compelling characters and do a great job in their respective roles. They were believable and helped really suck me into the movie. I also loved the premise. I've heard of similar conspiracy theories all across the internet over the years so it was interesting to have something like that developed into a full-length film. And it was successful.

For the most part.

I hate that I have to say anything bad about this movie because for about 95% of it, it was great. It had me going. I even wanted to believe in Teddy's (played by Jesse Plemons) theory. That this woman, this CEO, was really an alien. I was kind of routing for the guy a little bit, weirdly enough. Truth be told, I ended up getting what I wanted and the movie suffered for it.

Michelle Fuller (played by Emma Stone) is, in fact, an alien. An Andromedan to be specific.

Every one of the weird, bat-shit crazy things Teddy was saying were all 100% correct, right down to the design of the Andromedan ship (for the most part). The interior of the ship was drastically different but he got the overall exterior pretty much correct. Why would this be a bad thing if you were wanting it to happen, you ask?

Because the aliens were just plain stupid.

That's why.

Also, and major spoiler here, they "pop" Earth's bubble and ultimately kill every last human on the planet. Why would you end the movie like that? I have no idea. It wasn't fun or entertaining and it definitely ruined the rest of the movie for me. Not only do we get a very unhappy ending (which is still a fine way to end a story if done properly) but the Andromedans were just goofy. They looked goofy. They talked goofy. They wore something that looked like it had been crocheted by their grandma.

I just didn't like it.

I wish the writer would have workshopped the ending a little bit and come up with something different that allowed for Teddy and all his craziness to still be correct and the aliens to not be....dumb, I guess (I just really hated them. A lot). But that's not what we got so at the end of the day, I have to say it wasn't that good.

I wouldn't recommend this to anyone, unfortunately. I would've liked to but that ending....Yikes.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5