Oscar-winner Emma Stone and director Yorgos Lanthimos are at it again, bringing film fans another weird and wonderful collaboration — their fifth — to the big screen: Bugonia.

Based on the Korean film Save the Green Planet!, the movie has already garnered a lot of Oscar buzz and is set to be released in cinemas this Halloween. Starring Stone, Jesse Plemons, and Aidan Delbis, the film explores the idea of aliens, conspiracy theories, and more. Stone’s previous collaborations with Lanthimos include the films The Favourite, Poor Things, and Kinds of Kindness, as well as a short film and a music video.

If you’re considering watching the film in cinemas and are curious to learn what the critics think, here’s what you need to know.

What is Bugonia about? 🤔

Big shot pharmaceutical CEO Michelle (Stone) is kidnapped by two conspiracy theorists, Teddy (Plemons) and Don (Delbis), who are convinced that she is an alien intent on killing the planet.

They shave her hair and cover her in antihistamine cream to stop her from contacting her ‘ship’, and will stop at nothing to get the “truth” out of her. But Michelle is also ruthless, and she will use whatever tactic she can to try and convince them that she is not what they think she is.

What critics liked 👍

Deadline‘s Pete Hammond remarked that the film is a “return to form” for Stone and Lanthimos, adding it is a “dizzying, bats***-crazy story that ranks right up there with the filmmaker’s best” and is made even better thanks to Stone and a “magnificently unhinged Jesse Plemons”.

“Bugonia may be way out there, but I haven’t seen a film this year that feels as much of the moment for a world spinning out of control,” the critic wrote.

🎟️ Film: Bugonia

⏰ Runtime: 1hr 58 mins

🎭 Actors: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Aidan Delbis, Alicia Silverstone.

🍿 Genre: Crime comedy

🤔 Similar to: Save the Green Planet!, Poor Things

🍅 Ratings: 89% on Rotten Tomatoes, 7.6/10 on IMDb

For The Standard‘s India Block the strength of the film was in Stone’s performance, who she described as being “mesmerising”, adding that it is a “surprisingly restrained and naturalistic film for Lanthimos”.

While The Hollywood Reporter‘s David Rooney described the film as “a genre-hopping blast of suspense, sci-fi, paranoia and dark comedy” that works better than the director’s previous film with Stone and Plemons, Kinds of Kindness, but is “by no means Lanthimos’ best work”.

“Their new collaboration is more satisfying than that uneven and overlong puzzle box, not to mention more readily coherent as a narrative,” the critic wrote. “But it does feel almost like a repertory company lark, dashed off between more ambitious projects, prompting the hope that the Greek director will scale up again soon.”

Variety‘s Owen Gleiberman called the film “a heady and gripping experience” thanks to the performances laid out by Stone and Plemons.

The critic celebrated Stone’s performance, in particular, writing: “Stone, as an actor, has often led with her empathy, and it’s that very quality that renders her cutthroat performance in Bugonia so ironically exquisite.” Though it is Plemons, he writes, “who gives the film’s most extraordinary performance”.

What critics didn’t like 👎

For The Guardian‘s Peter Bradshaw, Bugonia is a “macabre and amusing new film” from Lanthimos, that has strong performances and an exceptional finale, but frankly it’s a very, very long run-up to that big jump.”

The critic wasn’t as taken with the film as others, writing: “Bugonia is a very well-made film, and while it is not true to say it is less than the sum of its parts, it is less than that final and very powerful part. Like Ari Aster’s recent film Eddington, it also shows how difficult it is to make internet conspiracy obsession interesting.

“For me, Bugonia doesn’t have the ingenuity and elegance of Lanthimos’s previous film Kinds of Kindness, nor the emotional generosity and audacity of his steampunk fantasia Poor Things. It’s a spiny, prickly, hothouse flower.”

Time‘s Stephanie Zacharek described the film as “punishing”, writing that while the “ridiculously over-the-top exploding-bodies gore” can be fun, “Lanthimos goes out of his way to amp up the story’s ugly, brutish qualities.”

Meanwhile, The Hollywood Reporter‘s critic Rooney did find some fault with the film, namely that it is so similar to the original Korean movie that it will lack surprise for anyone familiar with it.

“In keeping with the Korean original, it’s far from subtle and often a bit silly, but Lanthimos can always be relied upon to serve up something weird and subversive,” Rooney wrote.

Is Bugonia worth watching? 👀

If you are a fan of Yorgos Lanthimos’ distinctive style of storytelling, then it seems likely that Bugonia will be worth watching. The film is likely to be close to films like Poor Things — a bit weird and out there — but an interesting satire if you’re into that sort of thing.

Judging by the critics’ response, it is unclear whether the film is the strongest of Stone and Lanthimos’ collaborations, but it may well be one to watch at the Oscars.

Bugonia premieres in UK cinemas on Friday, 31 October.

Can we also suggest… 📽️

Poor Things is streaming on Disney+.

Nope is available to buy and rent

Enemy is streaming on ITVX