Bugonia and Radical Politics

In Yorgos Lanthimos’ 2025 film Bugonia, Jesse Plemons’ character, Teddy, is a scathing portrait of the contemporary American political subject. His positioning as the delusional, tree-hugging, narcissistic, dogmatic, fanatical, virtue-signalling, coercive, anti-establishment leftist becomes Lanthimos’ radical critique of not only the radical left but of political extremism in general.

Bugonia is a remake of the 2003 South Korean film, Save the Green Earth!, which has prompted critics to question the ‘timeliness’ of Lanthimos’ film, as the original was aptly made during a time dominated by popular conspiracy theories (Y2K Doomsday, 9/11 “inside job”, chemtrails, Iraq MWDs). Yet, what these critics have failed to consider is that what were once “funny” conspiracies have now been smuggled into national politics and been subject to prominent discourse. To this end, these conspiracies–which are fundamentally defined as theories that reject the dominant narrative of culture and present alternative stories–remain conspiracies for most inasmuch as they remain the alternative option, or the non-dominant narrative. Contemporary American politics have covertly transported the strategies of conspiracists across the fine line of myth-making and political storytelling into the dominant arena, which, by definition, seems non-conspiracist. It is this complete blindness towards the covert manipulations of political extremism that political radicals, on the left and the right, fall victim to in their own myopia–a blindness that makes “Save the Green Earth!” come at precisely the right time, where, as New Yorker writer Justin Chang describes, “the threat of conspiracy theories run amok carries a sharper, less funny sting than it did twenty years ago…”.

Lanthimos, then, positions Teddy at the epitome of political extremism which exemplifies the utter ridiculousness and absurdity of modern activism. High-powered CEO Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone)–-whose chemical engineering company, Auxolith Corp. causes Teddy’s much dreaded Colony Collapse Disorder—is used as a counterbalance to Teddy’s socialism. Additionally, while Lanthimos doesn’t make a hero out of Fuller, he ensures that her trespasses in her capacity as a corporate leader (i.e. verbally affirming the employees’ option to go home early while implying the opposite) are far outweighed by the twisted horrors of Teddy. Extreme capitalism, in comparison to this world of entrapment, kidnapping, torture, and serial murder is made the obvious lesser evil. Fuller herself is presented first as an active participant in a social narrative of her own. In an introductory montage of her violent self-defence training regimen and her struggles to record a diversity training video, Fuller is characterised to be the “ambitious, independent, businesswoman” participating in the (at times) toxic work culture of corporate America. While Fuller presents a competitive ‘whose boss?’ mentality that channels a type of professional aggression, her efforts are ultimately rooted in ‘normal’ (monetary, in her case) incentives.

The same cannot be said about Teddy. Teddy rightfully points out that “ninety-nine point nine per cent of what’s called activism is really personal exhibitionism and brand maintenance in disguise.” This observation would be right on the money if he had not failed to remember that his own perverted and bastardised activism was entirely a stint of the exact self-exhibition and narcissism he is polemicising. Of all the political positions he’s “cycled through”, including “alt-right, alt-lite, leftist, Marxist”, Teddy’s political stance is the most artificial and implausible. He uses his mentally disabled cousin, Don (Aiden Delbis), to reaffirm his explicit anti-establishment sentiments. He participates in this complete charade of non-labelling when his political ideology can be described precisely using a combination of the above terms. He takes huge pride, completely shamelessly, in the contrarian valence of his beliefs on the most basic of things. To this end, it becomes increasingly obvious that he needs to construct these fantastical conspiracy tales, and his commitment to them is a symptom of a most inherent insecurity. Unable to pick his butt of the chair and earn an elevated position in society to earn some sort of self-confidence and self-affirmation, he resorts to lazy contrarianism to distinguish himself from others. In other words, his obsession with dominant culture and its supposed antagonism is, at its very core, a narcissistic narrative—one that places the self in the line of fire so that he can earn the attention and respect of onlookers around him. He victimises his own character in his story in a way that is overtly and desperately attention-seeking, and in doing so, hopes to instil some existential importance to his story and his life-meaning. This, in essence, is modern political extremism.

Further, and perhaps more sinisterly is that Teddy, like many political activists today (on both right and left), operates under this pretentious veil of altruism, where he claims to be doing all this out of empathy and compassion—for humanity. Underlying this ridiculous lie of compassion, generosity, and kindness are a set of unresolved personal traumas that are utterly unrelated to the political discourse at hand. Yet, in their awe-inspiring ignorance and delusion, these personal unresolved issues–like Teddy’s ‘mummy issues’–are rebranded and reloaded into a canon of emotional and psychological resentment. The result is a thin guise of willingness to engage in political discussion, which actually turns out to be a poorly disguised barrel for the excretion of their pitiful revenge fantasies.

Justin is a sophomore studying Film and English. He can often be seen in the wild DPing a short film or music video on and around campus, some of which he directs himself. He refuses to identify with the niche film bro aesthetic, and thus openly enjoys Inception, Django Unchained and Se7en, even at the detriment of his reputation in the film student community.

@justingao_