12/12/25 - Bugonia (2025) - 6/10

(lost notes)

Bugonia, which is a remake of the marvelous Korean sci-fi weirdness that is Save the Green Planet (2003), feels more timely than its predecessor. With conspiracy theory foundational to our politics, thought process, and way of life, Lanthimos turned what was at times whacky and scattered into a dark moody piece of crumbling mental breakdown and horrific drive. Honestly though, I like the original better, with its tonal shifts which make the horrors present as more felt. There is also a detective plot interweaved and an exploration of love, without the innate trappings of sexual power dynamics at play in Bugonia.

But there is plenty to like here. Plemons unhinged manipulative drive make for a scary protagonist, while Stone provides a detached and disturbingly foreign counterweight. They make for interations that linger creepily and dig under the skin, peeling the layers for some semblance of truth or meaning.

Lanthimos has a natural oddity to his films and a penchant to explode that boundary between acceptable and the alien other. Moments like Plemons companions end shock and expose the soft underbelly of what is really explored and at stake here, the seduction of the fringe into the darkness of the black pill. It’s a shaking moment and contextualized the entire underpinnings of the movie.

I know some found it hard to vibe with the ending, which is fairly accurate to the original. It’s hard for me because I knew what was coming, having seen the original first, but it feels like a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation. I sympathize with the conundrum and the resulting mixed feelings.

This was good but not near his top level work, though his sensibilities meshed well with a reinterpretation of STGP.