Netflix's Paranoid Sci-Fi Masterpiece Is the Perfect Weekend Watch

Published Jul 18, 2026, 5:30 PM EDT Luca Mehta is a Chicago-born critic, interviewer, and podcaster based in Toronto. He specializes in retrospectives, new releases, genre films, and red carpet interviews. Unfortunately, every civilization is built on “the blame game.” We’re barely an eighth of the way into Donald Trump’s second term, but his trademark brand of populism feels like it hit its apex decades ago. When millions of people are out of work, underpaid, and overall disgruntled, it’s easy for leaders—particularly those on the far-right—to redirect citizens’ anger towards a disenfranchised target: immigrants, racial minorities, anyone who isn’t cisgender and heterosexual. Why would people in power take accountability if it stopped lining their pockets? This leads us to the contemporary normalization of conspiracy-theorist and grifter culture, a not-so-fringe-anymore series of “movements” that Yorgos Lanthimos hyperbolizes in his Oscar-nominated latest, Bugonia. Bugonia stars Jesse Plemons and Aidan Delbis as two cousins, Teddy and Don, who kidnap a pharmaceutical company’s CEO (Emma Stone) and accuse her of secretly being an alien—an “Andromedan,” to be precise. Adapted by Will Tracy from Korean writer-director Jang Joon-hwan’s 2003 film Save the Green Planet!, Bugonia’s indictment of humanity is neither strictly American nor recent. The long-standing existence of social subjugation has hinged on the few blaming the many, turning people—sometimes loved ones—against one another to avoid accountability. A battle of wits on either side of the financial and sociopolitical spectrum, Bugonia’s sardonic misanthropy was, like most Yorgos Lanthimos films, alienating. That said, the film also serves as one of Lanthimos’ sharpest satires so far. Yorgos Lanthimos’ Kinds of Kindness didn’t exactly make a splash like The Favourite or Poor Things did, though it did two things: introduced Jesse Plemons to Lanthimos’ troupe of regular collaborators, and further established the Greek auteur as one of the most prolific yet divisive filmmakers of our time. That said, he recently told us that he needed a break from filmmaking (he took on directing responsibilities due to Jang Joon-hwan’s health concerns), so who knows what's next? All I can say is that, after earning four Oscar nominations (including Best Picture, despite winning none), Bugonia is one hell of a way to wrap up a truly idiosyncratic three-year run after Poor Things (2023) and Kinds of Kindness (2024). Tired as Yorgos Lanthimos says he is, it certainly doesn’t show in his filmmaking. From film to film, Lanthimos pivots from minimalism to maximalism on a whim, with Bugonia mainly operating within the realm of minimalism. Since Bugonia is mostly a chamber piece, this gives Lanthimos room to counteract the screenplay’s simplicity with his now-famously playful formalism. Bugonia aligns with Poor Things’ maximalism in abstractly brief black-and-white vignettes, coupled with the use of fisheye lenses Lanthimos fell head-over-heels for during The Favourite. Shot primarily on the resurging VistaVision 35mm format (everybody say, “thank you, Brady Corbet”), Bugonia’s colorful vibrancy contrasts against what might be Lanthimos’ darkest film to date—bar The Killing of a Sacred Deer. ‘Bugonia’ Pits Emma Stone Against Jesse Plemons Image via Focus Features Here's a good rule of thumb: if you're writing a screenplay centered around mental warfare, you'll need some excellent actors to pull it off. And, after Emma Stone’s Oscar-winning turn in Poor Things and Jesse Plemons’ Best Actor win at Cannes for Kinds of Kindness, Yorgos Lanthimos knew exactly who to choose. Emma Stone (who earned her fifth acting Oscar nomination for Bugonia), in particular, has been on a rampage around Hollywood for the past decade, after winning Best Actress for La La Land in 2017. Most actors would settle down after winning two Oscars, but not Stone. Instead, she let co-star Aidan Delbis shave her head completely bald for the role of Michelle Fuller, the kidnapped CEO in question. Meanwhile, on the other side of the basement (or debate chamber) is Jesse Plemons in a role that deserved an Oscar nod alongside Emma Stone. As an actor, Plemons has been relatively difficult to pin down. Where he's a sociopathic killer in Breaking Bad, he counterbalances that by being an utter sweetheart in The Power of the Dog (don’t even get me started on how funny he is in Game Night). Bugonia, however, may be his best performance to date. Outside of dropping a whopping 50 pounds for the role, Plemons’ gaunt physicality lends so much to Teddy’s withdrawnness. Teddy’s entire character is built on manosphere-esque ideologies (particularly an exaggeration of semen retention), sucking Don down the drain with him. 'Bugonia' is Another Divisive Yorgos Lanthimos Film Image via Focus Features Similar to Ari Aster’s Eddington, Bugonia’s dissection of conservative scapegoating was met with—per the Yorgos Lanthimos pattern—both criticism and praise. Variety’s Owen Gleiberman found the film “an ingeniously witty and incisive exposé of the dueling mindsets,” whereas Time Magazine’s Stephanie Zacharek found Bugonia both mean-spirited and redundant in its messaging. It’s not wrong to say that Lanthimos is smug (that cheekiness might be what I love the most about him), but he’s too much of a maverick to write off entirely. He's not a filmmaker for everyone (the sign of a distinctive auteur), but Bugonia will reward those who are willing to laugh with Lanthimos as the world—along with the human race—collapses around us. Release Date November 7, 2025 Runtime 119 minutes Director Yorgos Lanthimos Writers Will Tracy Producers Andrew Lowe, Ari Aster, Ed Guiney, Emma Stone, Jerry Kyoungboum Ko, Lars Knudsen, Miky Lee, Yorgos Lanthimos, Kasia Malipan, Will Greenfield