BREAKING: Bugonia just turned your holiday watchlist upside down. Yorgos Lanthimos has dropped his strangest, sharpest film into living rooms, and it bites. The dark satire, led by Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons, is now streaming on Peacock. It is a kidnap thriller with bees, fear, and a very human mess at its center. It is also a cultural moment arriving right on time.
Bugonia lands at home today
I can confirm Bugonia began streaming on Peacock on December 26. The rollout was carefully staged. After a Venice premiere on August 28, a late October U.S. theatrical run, and a digital drop on November 25, the 4K and Blu‑ray hit on December 23. The timing set the table for this streaming debut, and the conversation it invites.
Bugonia is now streaming on Peacock. It arrives after digital on November 25 and discs on December 23.
This is Lanthimos, but bigger. The movie was shot on 35 mm VistaVision by Robbie Ryan, and it looks bold and severe. The budget, roughly 45 to 55 million, marks the director’s largest canvas. That size shows in every frame, from stark rooms to buzzing fields, from cold chrome to sticky honey.
Stone and Plemons go for broke
Emma Stone commits to a ruthless screen transformation as a pharma CEO held captive by two beekeepers who think she is an alien. She shaved her head for the role, and she uses that bare look like a weapon. The performance is icily controlled, then quietly bruised. You cannot look away.
Jesse Plemons is the film’s steady quake. His beekeeper believes every thread he pulls will save the world. He plays paranoia as a gentle hum that becomes a siren. It is one of his best turns yet. Rising actor Aidan Delbis brings unexpected warmth as a key supporting force, adding ache and empathy to a story that could have stayed bitter.
Awards season has taken notice. The film’s critical score sits near 87 percent, and the chatter is not just about craft. It is about impact. Viewers keep arguing over who, if anyone, is right. That ambiguity is the hook.
A satire that stings now
Will Tracy’s script adapts the 2003 South Korean cult gem Save the Green Planet!, and it keeps the wild mix alive. Horror, sci‑fi, and comedy share the same cage. Lanthimos targets corporate power, conspiracy culture, and climate dread. He pushes them together until sparks fly.
The bees are not cute symbols. They are a clock. The film pokes at the way fear spreads, then asks what happens when fear gets proof. Corporate language gets sliced into ribbons. Folk wisdom curdles into zeal. Every laugh has a shadow.
Ryan’s camera frames faces like puzzles. The close‑ups feel like interrogations. The wider shots give us order, then let chaos slip in at the edges. The mood is chilly, but the emotion runs hot.
The film includes intense scenes of confinement and violence. Sensitive viewers should be prepared.
Celebrities, craft, and the moment
Stone and Lanthimos are on a rare streak together. After stretching romance and myth in their last collaboration, they lock into something sharper here. She tests how far a star image can bend, and it holds. Plemons, always precise, turns small choices into dread.
This is also the director most people will meet for the first time at home. The scale invites a wider crowd, yet the voice stays strange. That balance, festival pedigree meets couch access, makes Bugonia feel like an event. It is not just a movie dropping onto a platform. It is a pin pulled at the end of the year.
- Five things to watch for:
- Stone’s cool stare, and the cracks in it
- Plemons’s quiet menace in tight spaces
- Robbie Ryan’s clean, piercing frames
- Will Tracy’s bitter, funny dialogue
- A finale that refuses easy comfort
Give yourself time to sit with the ending. The questions stick.
Fans are already choosing sides
In theaters, I watched audiences laugh, then freeze. At home, that effect deepens. The film asks you who you trust, then flips the board. Some viewers will see a portrait of unchecked power. Others will see the cost of conspiracy turned to faith. Most will feel both, which is the trick.
The beekeepers’ plan is absurd, then plausible, then terrifying. That arc taps into real nerves, from broken systems to climate panic. The result is a satire that feels current without preaching. It stings, then it lingers.
The bottom line
Bugonia is not safe comfort viewing, and that is the point. Lanthimos delivers a needle‑sharp thriller, powered by Emma Stone’s fearless turn and Jesse Plemons’s slow burn. The film is gorgeous, nasty, funny, and sad, often in the same scene. With Peacock’s debut, the year ends with a jolt. Press play, lean in, and let it get under your skin.
