The best way to experience Yorgos Lanthimos’s latest tour de force “Bugonia” is to go in blind—so if you haven’t seen it yet, stop reading and head straight to the theater.

The Greek filmmaker’s extraordinary technique—honed during his early days directing music videos, and more recent films like the 2023 “Poor Things”—is on full display in this genre-blending comedy-horror-sci-fi film. His ongoing collaborations with fearless performers like Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons, who fully inhabit his singular vision, all but guarantee a heavy presence this Oscar season.

The film opens on two cousins, Teddy (Plemons) and Don (Aidan Delbis), tending bees on their run-down farm. Both appear to be on the spectrum: Teddy, a self-taught conspiracy theorist deep into the dark web, explains to the gentle, trusting Don, “We’re not steering the ship—they are.” The “they” in question? A race of aliens from the Andromeda galaxy who’ve infiltrated Earth and enslaved the working class. “They’ve made us hollowed, harmless, and hopeless,” Teddy warns, “just like the bees, with no way home again.” But Teddy has a plan to fight back.

Don follows Teddy’s schemes out of loyalty—he’s his only friend. As the pair pedal around their dying town, they might seem like delusional outcasts. And yet, as in “Rosemary’s Baby,” part of the thrill is not knowing who’s crazy and who’s actually right.

When their story collides with Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone), a smug pharma CEO, the film turns into a battle of wills. Teddy and Michelle are both master manipulators, locked in a high-stakes psychological duel. Even as Michelle finds herself handcuffed in Teddy’s grimy basement, her power never wanes.

Like a well-trained hostage negotiator, she shifts tactics to undermine her captor’s confidence and secure her freedom. Stone’s fearless openness makes her the ideal—and perhaps only—actress who could pull off this role. Like Tilda Swinton, she keeps pushing herself into new, unnerving territory.

A series of black-and-white flashbacks illuminates Teddy’s vendetta: his mother, possibly a victim of a medical trial overseen by Michelle. Whether these scenes depict truth or delusion is unclear—the surreal tone keeps us guessing. Dark humor creeps in through Teddy’s encounters with a former babysitter turned cop, which gradually tilt into darkness.
Lanthimos’s collaboration with composer Jerskin Fendrix yields an operatic score that heightens every emotion, while songs by Green Day and a haunting Marlene Dietrich rendition of “Where Have All the Flowers Gone” add texture and irony. The film’s world-building is immaculate. The contrasting settings—rural decay versus corporate gloss—echo the film’s critique of class and control.

The title “Bugonia” refers to an ancient Greek myth in which bees are reborn from a sacrificed cow—a potent symbol of life emerging from decay that echoes throughout the film.

How you interpret the final fifteen minutes may depend on your age, gender, and tolerance for narrative leaps and violence. Horror and sci-fi fans will be riveted by where Lanthimos takes his story; those who prefer psychological realism will still find plenty to savor in the cat-and-mouse interplay between Teddy and Michelle.