This remake of Save the Green Planet! is yet another sick and twisted entry from Yorgos Lanthimos.
BY DANTE ALVAREZ
NOVEMBER 6, 2025 12:45 EST
©Focus Features
“Bugonia”
So how did we get to this sweaty, frantic, and disturbing look into our modern day? We’d need to look back to 2003 when South Korean filmmaker Jang Joon-hwan’s Sci-Fi Comedy was released. Save the Green Planet! follows a similar composition to Bugonia, and while the latter doesn’t change many plot points, it rebuilds the characters from Save the Green Planet! in a relevant reflection of our current sociopolitical state.
A conspiracy theorist, his accomplice, and the head of a healthcare company walk into a bar. No, wait… the CEO is instead tied down to a chair with rustic chains inside of a basement in the middle of rural Georgia. Standing in front of her, the conspiracy theorist somewhat confidently explains why in the hell he has shaved her entire head of hair. In retaliation, the renowned Michelle Fuller (Stone) subjects Teddy (Plemons) and Don (Delbis) to a dialogue about their unforgiving and quite frankly, stupid accusation; Teddy and Don are in agreement that an alien is currently laying right in front of their eyes.
The original story’s identity thrives, yet it’s approached with the classic Lanthimos touch. The awkward but unsettling comedic tone is consistent for a good chunk, but because the film doesn’t lead with it, the emotionally heavy gut punches aren’t lost on the audience. The intricate nuances placed between the class division of Teddy and Michelle Fuller are hard to lose because of how each performance characterizes the two distinct personalities.
Jesse Plemons is giving it his all with every moment of screentime he is given. The idiosyncratic approach to Lanthimos’ familiarly unique style mixes together splendidly. Plemons works around the difficult personality by leading with sincerity and understanding, which inevitably adds a longevity to the satire at hand. Stone, as always, demands attention in a role boxed in by the circumstances of the film’s story.
©Focus Features
“Bugonia”
Maybe the most impressive result of Will Tracy’s script is the performance strung out by Adrian Delbis. Don, a somewhat minor character, leaves a huge footprint on an already intense unravelling that consistently demands attention. The sprawling nature of the elements at hand never loses itself despite fighting ridiculous and wacky plot points.
The term Bugonia denotes the ancient Greek belief that bees are spontaneously born out of animal carcasses. The bloodcurdling rattle of death simultaneously marks the creation of one of Earth’s most intelligent, prolific, and admirable spirits. While Bugonia questions the efforts in saving our green and beautiful planet, the film responds by finding a cathartic and melancholic answer whilst standing in between the continuous growth of havoc and pessimism.
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