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After dabbling in dystopian fantasy (The Lobster) and period comedy (The Favourite), shocking us along the way with original creations (Dogtooth) and fanciful adaptations (Poor Things) alike, Yorgos Lanthimos has proven time and again that there’s not a single uncreative bone in his body. Remaking the criminally underseen Korean sci-fi comedic thriller Save the Green Planet!, he succeeds in honoring the original while putting his unique stamp on it. The result is a sleeker (if slightly paler) version of a truly bonkers film.
The story follows Teddy (Jesse Plemons), an intense-looking young man who works a low-level packing job and keeps bees at the place he shares with cousin Ron (Aidan Delbis). The first thing you notice about Teddy is his fixed idea that aliens live among us and are responsible for everything from the corporate enslavement of humans to the extinction of species. To kick out the extraterrestrials and save mankind, he and Ron kidnap the CEO of a biochemical company (Emma Stone) who he believes to be an emissary from the malevolent Andromedan civilization and, upon the lunar eclipse in four days, must make contact with her emperor to end their colonization of planet Earth.
Will Tracy, in adapting Jang Joon-hwan’s screenplay, makes some significant changes. The kidnapped CEO is now a woman while the protagonist’s accomplice is no longer his love interest. Moreover, a major subplot around the detective investigating the crime is reduced to a couple scenes. These turn Bugonia into much more of a two-hander between Plemons’ and Stone’s characters and create some delicious face-offs––the former tries terrorizing a supposed alien into submission while the latter does everything to outsmart a dangerous nutcase.
This removal of both romantic subplot and police investigation, however, costs Bugonia some extra flavors. Green Planet‘s beautifully undefined relationship between its protagonist and his female partner in crime went beyond mere friendship or codependency. They saw in each other a kindred spirit that owes more to their being misunderstood by society at large; how this bond between misfits carries them to the bitter end is an emotional highlight that goes missing in Bugonia, in which Ron has far less to do. The scrapping of the police investigation, meanwhile, means subtracting some nail-biting moments in a mid-section that plays accordingly slower.
Lanthimos, a master of morbid humor, gives the comedic-leaning first act more of an acidic bite than Jang. Scenes of the kidnapping and initial exchanges between the amateur criminal and incredulous victim are, with a stone-cold straight face, properly milked for their inherent ridiculousness . A team of past collaborators (including DP Robbie Ryan and composer Jerskin Fendrix) also helps realize a striking, strange, decidedly Lanthimosian world. Ryans dramatically color-saturated frames are a wonderful match for Bugonia‘s wacky tone, adding a theatrical and slightly surreal quality. Fendrix’s percussion-heavy, often emphatically frantic score captures the chaos that threatens to erupt at any point. If there’s still any doubt that this is a Lanthimos joint, the final montage to wrap up the unpredictable misadventure observes our world with such loving, bleak honesty it can hardly be mistaken for anyone else.
Playing a paranoia-fueled conspiracy theorist and potential savior of mankind, Plemons conveys a level of fervent conviction that’s simultaneously funny and frightening: one could actually believe his character means every crazy thing he says and will do every crazy thing he promises. When we later find out what happened to his mother, which likely contributed to Teddy’s fall down the rabbit hole, the performance takes on a note of hurt that makes the character even more fascinating. Stone makes the most from a substantially beefed-up role: going through stages of disbelief, rage, and despair until she learns to fight her abuser at his own game, her character adapts and evolves by way of a performance that surprises for how nasty it gets. This is the fourth feature that Stone and Lanthimos have collaborated on, and one can sense the trust they share in allowing the actress to fully go out there and wow us .
Though far less refined on a technical level, Save the Green Planet! is a total beast of a film that plays all the more unhinged for its down-and-dirty nature. (For long stretches of time, you’d imagine you’re watching a version of Saw directed by Stephen Chow.) Lanthimos doesn’t go for the slapstick so hard, but comes up with a mix of comedy and horror that’s still potent. The message Bugonia ends on, especially, packs a punch that few might see coming.
Bugonia premiered at the 2025 Venice Film Festival and will begin a theatrical release on October 24.
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