Early reactions to Yorgos Lanthimos’ Bugonia pour in as the film premieres in Venice
It has been a big reveal of the new Yorgos Lanthimos/Emma Stone team-up. On Wednesday, the poster for Bugonia was released. Yesterday, a new trailer was released. Today, reactions are coming out of the Venice Film Festival as the movie premieres to an audience for the first time. Reactions to Bugonia have started to crop up on social media. So, what are audiences saying? Lanthimos and Stone have been gathering much acclaim together with The Favourite, Poor Things and Kinds of Kindness. Will Bugonia be another success for them?
Movie critic Mia Pflüger posted her reaction, which read, “Emma Stone in #Bugonia is magnetic, dangerous and utterly unforgettable. Her most physically and emotionally demanding role yet – she owns every scene and is the one and only Lanthimos’ muse. The best actress of her generation for a reason. #Venezia2025 #Venezia82″
Erik Davis from Fandango and Rotten Tomatoes says, “Yorgos Lanthimos’ #Bugonia is SO GOOD and probably his most accessible film yet. Top 3 Yorgos for me, personally. It’s a timely high-energy kidnapping thriller full of dark, often hilarious eccentricity. Jesse and Emma are brilliant, but newcomer Aidan Delbis is the film’s heart and quite the discovery. This is a remake of a 2003 South Korean film called Save the Green Planet. If you are not familiar with that film, my advice is to stay away from the details and go into Bugonia as fresh as you can. What a wild ride this is.”
Film critic Jairo Jiménez (who sports a good line from The Last Boy Scout in his profile description) posted, “Emma Stone as Michelle is extraordinary. She displays characteristic emotional dexterity, interweaving vulnerability w/ a firm corporate facade. Jesse Plemons channels a volatile mix of menace & pathos, and her paranoid intensity anchors the film’s biting satirical tone. #Bugonia”
Jack Walters of ScreenRant also glowed about the film, saying, “#Bugonia is a bold, beautiful story of humanity that uses its pitch-black comedy to great effect, leaning on a career-best performance from Jesse Plemons and an equally audacious turn from Emma Stone. Takes a massive swing at the end, but the journey is worth it. #Venezia82”
Bugonia has this for a synopsis: Two conspiracy obsessed young men kidnap the high-powered CEO of a major company, convinced that she is an alien intent on destroying planet Earth.
Stone is joined in the cast by Jesse Plemons, Aidan Delbis, Stavros Halkias, and Alicia Silverstone.
The original film, Save the Green Planet, was directed by Joon-hwan Jang, and when the remake was first announced over four years ago, it was said that Jang would be at the helm of the new take on the concept as well. But he ended up passing the helm over to Lanthimos. The Bugonia screenplay was written by Will Tracy, a writer on HBO’s Succession and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver who also co-wrote the genre film The Menu. Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe are producing Bugonia for Element Pictures, alongside Miky Lee and Jerry Ko for CJ ENM, Stone for Fruit Tree, Ari Aster and Lars Knudsen for Square Peg, and Lanthimos.
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