Netflix Has Emma Stone’s New Rated-R Sci-Fi Movie, It’ll Turn You Inside Out

By TeeJay Small
| Published 49 seconds ago

If you’re into weird, trippy movies with complex characters, twisted conspiracies, and some overarching sci-fi elements, you’re probably already a fan of Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos. Lanthimos’ oeuvre includes The Lobster, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, and Kinds of Kindness, just to name a few. While each of these films offers a mind-bending adventure, none has turned my head inside out quite like his latest, Bugonia, now streaming on Netflix.

Bugonia stars Emma Stone as a ruthless CEO of a massive pharmaceutical conglomerate. Fresh off a slew of bad press for suppressing workers’ rights, Stone’s Michelle Fuller goes above and beyond to present the image of a caring, easygoing boss. She encourages her employees to take time for their mental health and leave early, while subtly implying that doing so would mean risking their jobs. She’s your run-of-the-mill billionaire monster.

As Fuller goes about her daily routine, we are introduced to conspiracy theorist Teddy Gatz, played expertly by Breaking Bad‘s Jesse Plemons, and his cousin Don, portrayed by newcomer Aidan Delbis. Teddy, like many real-life viewers at home, is a disenfranchised wage worker who has fallen down a deep rabbit hole of online alien conspiracies. He has come to believe that a race of alien creatures has assimilated into Earth’s population, disguised themselves as corporate elites, and subjugated the world through a series of telepathic commands.

Bugonia really picks up when Teddy and Don kidnap and imprison Michelle in their basement, believing her to be a member of the alien race. Based on information they’ve collected in insulated internet chatrooms, the duo shave her head, chain her up, and slather her entire body with antihistamine lotion. They believe these measures will prevent the CEO from utilizing her mind-control powers or contacting her alien mothership for backup.

From there, most of Bugonia centers on Michelle as she attempts to escape from her captors by any means necessary. She tries to enlighten the kidnappers with logic and deprogram their conspiracy-addled minds. She even tries leaning into the conspiracy and promising that she’ll bring them into contact with her alien superiors if they let her go. The whole time, Teddy and Don are taking measures to prevent themselves from being manipulated by Michelle, by chemically sterilizing themselves and taking prescription drugs against label instructions.

Bugonia is an absolute wild ride from start to finish, and one that I simply couldn’t pry my eyes away from. Everything from Emma Stone’s spectacular leading performance to the quirky, bizarre writing to the occasional mind-bending twist kept me on the edge of my seat, constantly questioning the film’s reality. By my estimation, it’s the perfect conspiracy movie for a post-Epstein list world, where even the most twisted conspiracies don’t seem as ridiculous as they did five or ten years ago.

If you get the chance to catch Bugonia on Netflix, don’t miss it. Just be sure to throw away everything you think you know before going in, or you just might find yourself manipulated by a race of malevolent alien overlords.