I messed up. I thought the title was “Begonia” after the flowering plant. But then I checked the spelling and then its definition. Boy, was I off track on that – and a lot more.
Kudos go to the writer, Will Tracy, for the obscure title concept. Though his screenplay is based on the 2003 Korean film “Save the Green Planet!,” he changed the title. A Google search reveals bugonia is “an ancient Greek belief where bees spontaneously generate from a cow’s corpse, symbolizing death leading to new life.” This cycle can act “as a metaphor for societal decay and the hope for renewal, especially in corrupt modern life.”
So what follows is that death is a good thing because from death can come new life. It’s the cycle of nature. But on thinking it over, I have to add, specifically to Tracy, that the reverse is not especially true. Killing life to get death (and then a possible tourist paradise) may not be a good thing. Ask the people living in Gaza. So, I think the premise is a bit off.
The gist of the film’s story is that a major screwball, bicycle-riding Teddy (Jesse Plemons), thinks high-powered, wealthy CEO Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone), of a major pharmaceutical company, is an alien and convinces his best friend (Aidan Delbis) to join him in kidnapping her. He believes she is an alien and part of an extraterrestrial plan to destroy earth, as evidenced by the die-off of honeybees.
Furthermore, Teddy also blames her for his now-comatose mother (Alicia Silverstone), who participated in an experimental drug trial for opioid addiction run by Fuller’s company. Teddy believes only an inhuman “alien” could be responsible for such cruelty to a human.
But then, inexplicable torture and gore ensue in Teddy’s basement, and that’s when “Bugonia” irrevocably blasted off my best film list.
Okay, my readers, even so, Emma Stone was believable and outstanding in her role as Michelle Fuller. Her screams and suffering are A+. The role, though not the movie, is a fine vehicle for another Best Actress win for Stone.
Here’s my conjecture. Emma Stone is out to expand her acting experiences, testing her own abilities to interpret different kinds of extreme drama. “Poor Things” (2023) is an example. Wildly pornographic, like the following year’s “Anora”(2024), they both inexplicably won the Oscar for Best Film and Best Actress. I don’t understand it.
I don’t understand it because I am normal. When I see a film, I want to be entertained, educated, or inspired. Life is too short to spend time hiding my eyes in a horror flick. And that’s the main thing I have to say about “Bug-on-ya” (one pronunciation).
Credits
Director: Yorgos Lanthios
Screenplay: Will Tracy
Based on: “Save the Green Planet!” by Jany Joon-hawn
Producers: Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe, Yorgos Lanthimos, Emma Stone, Ari Aster, Lars Kndsen, miky Lee, and Jerry Kyongboum Ko
Cast: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Aidan Delbis, Stavros Halkias and Alicia Silverstone
Cinematography: Robbie Ryan
Editor: Yorgos Mavropsaridis
Music: Jerskin Fendrix
Release: Oct. 24, 2025
Official Website and how to view: https://www.bugoniamovie.ca/home/
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