Film Review: Bugonia (2025)

Film Review: Bugonia (2025)

When Paranoia Meets Corporate PR

Bugonia is a minimalist psychological puzzle that unfolds almost entirely within a single location. The premise is simple and absurd in equal measure: two environmental activists kidnap a high-ranking biotech CEO, convinced she is an alien responsible for ecological devastation — particularly the decline of bees. What follows is a tense, theatrical three-hander where certainty is in short supply and authority becomes a performance in its own right.

Emma Stone delivers a razor-sharp portrayal of the CEO, a woman so composed, so relentlessly professional, that even tied to a chair, she negotiates, reframes, redirects — as if being held hostage were just a difficult stakeholder meeting running behind schedule. 

The film’s real intrigue lies in how it plays with perspective. For most of its time, we’re left wondering:

Are these men deeply unwell, trapped in their own conspiracy?

Or is their prisoner indeed an alien?

Bugonia keeps both doors open, inviting the audience to question the characters’ sanity. It also shows how much power can be won through sheer entitlement.

Underlying all of this is a sharp environmental commentary. The film casually suggests that the actions of certain corporations are so destructive that they feel alien. The real horror, however, is that these harms are entirely human. In this sense, Bugonia becomes a fable about accountability and corporate detachment.

What remains unmistakable is the strength of the performances (Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Aidan Delbis). With a tiny cast and a confined setting, the movie leans almost entirely on character work.

Bugonia is not an easy film to classify, but it is a compelling one: part thriller, part satire, part ecological parable. It invites viewers to examine the fine line between conviction and delusion — and to question who, in our current environmental moment, is truly behaving like an alien.

Agnes Prygiel

04.12.2025

Frieze Sculpture Exhibition

Colossal Pineapple & Environmental Awareness

"Frieze Sculpture" outdoor exhibition in Regent’s Park showcases three-dimensional installations by the world's most acclaimed contemporary artists. It touches upon climate, national beliefs and human conflicts. 

Rose Wylie's "Pineapple" 2020

As a cartoonist, I am particularly attracted to artworks that emanate colour and humour. Rose Wylie's playful "Pineapple" sculpture drew my attention straight away. 

Associating a simple object with a more significant meaning, the artist uses a popular fruit as a point of reference in her reflection on the social changes in the 20th century. Like pineapples - once a symbol of luxury - many privileges reserved to the rich are now commonly available. The perception of class differences shifted, and things out of our limits became attainable through time.

 

Anne Moris' "Stack 9 Ultramarine Blue" 2021

Although "Stack 9 Ultramarine Blue" radiates positivity, it is inspired by a traumatic event of the artist's miscarriage. Anne Morris created a truly magical piece out of the darkness of her misfortune. Resembling beads strung on a thread by a child, the artwork plays with proportions, vibrant colours and textures. Tragic personal experience has been a catalyst for a work that appears so carefree and accessible. It is a strong female voice on the contemporary art scene. 

Tatiana Wolska in front of her environmental sculpture

One of the artists presenting her work at the exhibition is Polish-born Tatiana Wolska, with whom I share the country of origin. Working with recycled materials, the artist focuses on environmental awareness. Using thermal welding and piercing to reshape plastic, she creates organic forms from rejected materials.

We use 1.5 billion water bottles globally every day. Rather than dismissing plastic as banal, the artist transforms it into new shapes. Suspended among the branches of an oak tree, her structures look meaningful and poetic.

 

Gisela Colon's "Quantum Shift" 2021, Stoyan Decher's "Even Horizon" 2019, Carlos Cruz-Diez' "Environment de Transchromie Circulaire" 1965-2017

More information about each piece in the form of an audio talk is available on the Frieze Festival's website. Frieze Sculpture free exhibition is open till the end of October 2021.

https://www.frieze.com/audio-guide-frieze-sculpture-2021