Rent Bugonia (2025)

Decent Wellacted Conspiracy Theory Thriller utterly ruined by the Epilogue at the end, last 10 mins - Bugonia review by PV

This starts well. Suitably kooky, and weird, with bees - a real character study piece, on mental illness and obsession.

It proceeds well, with some violent twists and some dark hidden underbelly to the main character's past. Jesse Plemons with his memorable name and face, is superb as he was in Breaking Bad as the redneck crystal-meth-cooker slave-driver and in Fargo 2nd series too (the weakest of the three, which like this jumps the shark with scifi silliness at the end).

IF I'd turned this DVD off 10 minutes before the end of the film, I'd have given it 4 stars. BUT...

when this film I was developing I was saying to myself "I'm sure the director/writer isn't going to do what I think he might" - and then he did. This epilogue to the plot sends what is a pretty decent conspiracy thriller into Lalaland (no spoilers) and is completely unnecessary, beyond silly, just BORING. It ruins the film. It's like some lame episode of the Twilight Zone, but worse.

I see I've given this director's films 1 stars a lot - the truly awful THE LOBSTER and more. Not profound, actually deeply derivative and silly. This film was GREAT until the handbrake turn 10 minutes before the end (no spoilers). Turn off then and enjoy it. Continue and that point and JUMP WITH THE SHARK. Your choice.

Watchable - Bugonia review by Alphaville

A shaggy-dog tale of two troubled guys who kidnap a female exec believing she is an alien. Although billed on the DVD sleeve as a comedy, there are no laughs and at times it delves into horror tropes. The main problem is that it’s overlong and the snail-pace plot just can’t fill the time available. Cue long drawn-out dialogue scenes and characters who don’t always act ‘in-character’ in order to inject plot twists. It would probably work better as a theatrical chamber piece. So why as many as three stars? It does make you wonder what’s eventually going to happen next, and the blasts of ironic music certainly perk matters up.

Strange but Masterful - Bugonia review by CD

I found this a very strange film but very much enjoyed it, and have thought about it a lot since veiwing it. Emma Stone and other leads are excellent and I really like the gentle relationship between the two male characters. The conspiracy theory angle suddenly changes to a much more interesting plot, and there is enough drama and action to keep the momentum to the very end. Really worth a look if you want to be challenged a bit.

Lanthimos & Stone continue their crazy partnership with a hard-hitting conspiracy influenced film - Bugonia review by Timmy B

The creative partnership between Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone shows no signs of slowing down, if anything changing up a gear with their latest collaboration. It is clear how much they love working together and the trust they have in each other, and this continues in Bugonia. Whenever I watch a new Lanthimos film, I am always unsure as to what I am going to see, and not always in a good way. His work has varied from the masterpiece (Killing of a Sacred Deer) through to the unwatchable rubbish (Kinds of Kindness.) But Bugonia is unafraid to go to not only dark but surreal places as well.

Teddy Gatz is a disillusioned, isolated & conspiracy theorist beekeeper who lives in a dilapidated home with his autistic cousin Don. Teddy is highly disturbed & has undiagnosed mental illness, spending every free moment he has online. He is convinced that there are aliens in disguise on Earth, one of which is Michelle Fuller, a extremely ambitious & brutally ruthless businesswoman who is not only Teddy's boss, but is also tangentially connected with his family as well. Teddy then kidnaps Michelle & imprisons her in his basement, demanding that she communicate with her mother ship to free the Earth.

After reading that summary, most people would go "Eh?" Some others, including myself, who have seen the terrible effects these conspiracy theories can have (the deliberate vandalising of mobile phone masts which cut off the emergency services for hours is a particularly disgusting example,) approached this with a degree of skepticism & trepidation. But this film is most interesting to me because of how it treats Teddy.

The easy thing to do would be to absolutely ridicule him, which might generate some comedy but actually be quite boring & obvious. But Lanthimos is careful to show exactly why he believes what he believes, as well as the horrific trauma which powers this. And whilst the film doesn't implicitly endorse his actions, neither does it go down the easy road of writing him off.

Stone's work is also interesting, mainly due to the deliberate subversion of her kind, clean-cut & gentle image. Fuller is not only an absolute bitch, but one who jumps headfirst into the facetious, syrupy faux-concern which you only ever see from businesses which have spent thousands on soulless training courses to appear to be concerned for their employees but instead are looking for ever more creative ways to exploit them whilst pelting them with word-salad tripe. It was scary how well Stone created this monster.

Once the tables have turned & Fuller is no longer in control, that's when the cat-and-mouse mental games start. It is a thrilling battle of wills, watching Plemons and Stone face off against each other. There are shocks a-plenty, especially in the final 3rd.

In terms of production, I adored the way the film was shot. VistaVision was the perfect choice and the whole look is absolutely incredible, especially the colours. It really added to the fairytale-like quality & mood. The sets, especially after watching the special features, were also amazing. What the team managed to create in a random part of London was jaw-dropping.

But I won't lie, I did feel weirdly uncomfortable & dirty by the time the film ended. I think this is probably to do with not only the ending, but also the general acceptance of some of the more extreme elements of the story. The treatment of Don, as someone who Teddy keeps saying he loves, yet forces him to do things he doesn't want to do as well as belittling him in front of Fuller, didn't sit well with me, even with the argument some would make about Teddy's own mental illness.

If you can go with it, this film really tries to do something different, which is always to be applauded. But it's ideas and weirdness may put off some viewers who don't particularly want to spend 2 hours with people who wear tin foil hats...