George Lantimos and Emma Stone are again in it with "Bugonia", a twisted dark comedy based on the 2003 film in South Korea "Save the green planet!" With a noticeable turn of "exhausted American life in 2025". There are many conversations about rabbit holes over the internet, with one character, an unwashed, unmistakable young man, mentioning that he has gone through various toxic stages, starting with the Altmen and working on the road down.

In a way, Bugonia feels linked to two other 2025 films that seem to summarize our strange times: Ari Aster's masterful "Eddington" and the masterful "one battle after another" by Paul Thomas Anderson. But while Singleon is a farce, and Anderson's film mixes hot buttons policy with exciting excitement, Lantimos's film has an undeniable hopelessness designed to make the audience unpleasant.

I'm not the biggest fan of Lantimos. I was not entirely on the ship with his work to "Favorite", Mostly because I found his films too damn cruel. With "Bugonia", that cruelty is on the screen again, although the mood is illuminated with a certain feeling of stupidity. However, there are a few moments in "Bugonia" that are so nasty and ghosts that they left me a little bad taste in my mouth. Not helping things are the fact that the film often feels scattered, as the script by Will Tracy not knowing what he is trying to say.

"Bugonia" is eventually reinforced by the trio of strong performances and several twists and turns that make us reconsider everything we have experienced. The Balks will get a blow from this one, and I say it with a UK. The final moments (which I would not dare to spoil) are so pleasant that I was almost ready to forget about any qualifications I had.

Stone plays Michel Fuller, high profile, high-power by a pharmaceutical company (we have been told that it should be 45 years, a suspicious idea that plays in a certain sense of mystery about the character). Michelle lives in wealth and isolation, and we got to know her about her work day, Telling telling the assistant that it is good if the employees want to go home at 5:30 am ... unless they have a job to do, then they should absolutely stay.

While Michelle's world is one of the sterile white environments and glass from the floor to the ceiling, we also look at the more intense lives of Teddy (Essie Plates) and his cousin Don (Aidan Delbis), who prepare the isolated Teddy country house. Lantimos contrasts the two different worlds in which the characters live without subtlety: while Michelle's surroundings and clothing are meaningless and clean, Teddy (who looks like he didn't take a shower for more than a month) and Don practically exists in Squalor.

These two worlds come together when Teddy and Don kidnap Michelle from her home. But they did not kidnap this rich woman for ransom; Instead, Teddy is convinced that Michelle is a foreigner of the planet Andromeda. He claims to have conducted a detailed research (which includes watching videos on YouTube, naturally) and is 100% convinced that Michelle is a humanoid alien part of the race that secretly travels humanity and slowly killing us by making life and the world terrible, especially for people of the working class.

The abduction is played for asyubopitic laughter, as Teddy's behavior and ideas sound inherently funny (for example: he shaves Michelle's hair because he believes aliens use their hair to communicate with each other). Teddy wants to use Michelle to negotiate with the aliens and save the human race in the process, as long as Michelle constantly insisted that Teddy is a misconception and that he is obviously not alien. Hence, "Bugonia" is becoming a long -term hearing, with Teddy trying to break Michelle, and Michelle is trying to judge her kidnappers.

Although there is not much meat on these bones (at least until the film approaches the final dipped in blood), "Bugonia" is elevated by its opportunity. Stone, who has done some of his best things with Lantimos, is masterfully struggling with an awkward role - sympathizing with Michelle because she is kidnapped, but we can also say that she is a deep lack of individual without learning much about her, due to the ice way. Stone's play is reinforced only by Plemons, which is the real starworm here, playing Teddy as a damaged man with a problematic past - the surreal black and white retrospective give us an insight into his relationship with his sick mother, played by Alicia Silverstone.

Much of the "Bugonia" is a duel with stone and pepmons go to it, playing a twisted battle of Wits, as these two characters are trying to understand each other. Adding dynamics is an unforgettable turnback as Don. Delbis is an autistic actor that plays an autistic character, and while such an idea can lead to something potentially exploitative, the character becomes a kind of moral center, the most sympathetic figure here.

Featuring a deliberately chaotic, lightning musical result from Eserskin Fendrick, "Bugonia" often feels too brazen for their own good - like Lantimos and the company have a huge cynical laughter at our expense. There is nothing wrong with that, by itself, but I'm not completely sure that it helps the overall message of the film - assuming there is a message at all. After all, "Bugonia" seems to be destined to be considered one of the "smaller" collaborations between George Lantimos and Emma Stone, while it is also one of more memorable films in 2025. It is sick and perverse enough to stick with you, and the moments of closure are particularly pleasant (of dark vision). I just wish it all added a little more.

/Movie rating: 7 out of 10

"Bugonia" opens in theaters on October 24, 2025.