by Megan Hilborne
On Friday, I had the privilege of attending the Bugonia Gala at the London Film Festival, where stars Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Aiden Delbis, director Yorgos Lanthimos, and many members of the crew were present. This marks Emma Stone’s sixth collaboration with Lanthimos, and during the pre-screening conversation, she was asked whether their creative relationship had developed naturally from the start or evolved over time through their continued work together.
She responded, “It’s a combination of both. From the beginning, it felt like a really great relationship, and it’s grown from there. It’s an amazing experience to keep wanting to make these things together.”
That sentiment was certainly palpable in the room. The cast and crew’s excitement for the film was infectious, creating a charged and anticipatory atmosphere in the Royal Festival Hall which is a venue that seats just under 3,000.
The film is an English remake of the Korean film Save the Green Planet! (2003, dir. Jang Joon-Hwan) and follows Teddy, Plemons, and his cousin Don, Delbis, who are two conspiracy theorists who kidnap an elite CEO, Stone, as they believe she is an alien who is going to destroy Earth.
This film is arguably the most restrained of Lanthimos’s work, or at least among the tamest. It feels noticeably more commercial in its storytelling and is perhaps his most mainstream effort to date. While it still retains the quirky, offbeat tone and distinctive style that define Lanthimos as an auteur, it comes across as far milder compared to the more eccentric films in his oeuvre like Poor Things (2023) and Dogtooth (2009). Because of this, I believe the film will be more accessible to a broader, mainstream audience.
The film’s overall tone marks a noticeable departure from Lanthimos’s previous work. It feels more upbeat and features far less of the stilted, awkward dialogue that often characterises his earlier films and contributes to their quirky charm. Instead, the writing infuses the film with a fresh, unpredictable energy that sets it apart from what we typically expect from Lanthimos. This tonal shift is largely thanks to the sharp script by Will Tracy.
As Emma Stone mentioned during the pre-screening discussion, everyone involved in the project had collaborated with Lanthimos before—except Tracy. Known for his work on The Menu (2022) and Succession (2019–2023), Tracy brings his signature wit and razor-sharp dialogue to Bugonia, and it shines throughout. The film is also uproariously funny; the nearly 3,000-strong audience at Royal Festival Hall frequently erupted in laughter. But when the story pivoted to the kind of shocking, visceral moments Lanthimos is known for, the entire room fell into a synchronized gasp with faces frozen in collective surprise. Lanthimos and Tracy, it seems, are a match made in cinematic heaven.
Megan Hilborne (Instagram: meghillbilly) is a freelance writer and film critic based in Portsmouth. She graduated with a degree in Film in 2020 and has continued her study of the medium in her day-to-day life. She takes particular interest in indie, horror, feminist and queer cinema.
Leave a comment