Is Yorgos Lanthimos’ Bugonia a potential Oscar contender? The undeniably odd film, a remake of the South Korean comedy Save the Green Planet!, was met with strong but not overwhelmingly positive reviews following its world premiere at Venice. But you can never sleep on Lanthimos, especially as he’s paired up with Emma Stone for the fourth time. Focus Features has released the final trailer for Bugonia, about a couple of guys who kidnap a high-powered CEO, believing her to be an alien determined to destroy Earth.
Stone plays the corporate CEO and potential alien. Jesse Plemons, Aidan Delbis, Stavros Halkias, and Alicia Silverstone co-star. Lanthimos directs from a script written by Will Tracy, co-writer on The Menu.
This is Lanthimos and Stone’s fourth movie together, following The Favourite, Poor Things, and Kinds of Kindness. They also collaborated on a short film, Bleat, in 2022. The partnership just works, even on a movie that underwhelms, as Kinds of Kindness does. They have a combined twenty Academy Award nominations together, so there’s a good shot of earning more.
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.
Bugonia opens in theaters on October 24th for a limited engagement, before going wide on October 31st. Locally, it will also be one of the featured films next week at the Middleburg Film Festival. If interested in tickets, go here.
