Review - Poor Things
Directed by: Yorgos Lanthimos
Written by: Tony McNamara
Starring: Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe, Ramy Youssef, Christopher Abbott, Jerrod Carmichael
Running Time: 141 minutes
Rating: 4.5/5
Yorgos Lanthimos has been quite the dark horse, art house director over the past few years. A filmmaker that has broken through the mainstream despite the extremely challenging nature of his movies, with unexpected turns when it comes to tone and subject. Following up on the critical and awards success of The Favorite, his latest film Poor Things is a significant leap forward in scope and tonality. Lanthimos’ latest promises to divide audiences into welcoming cheers or passionate recoils once it hits wide release.
Poor Things, adapted from the novel of the same name, follows Bella Baxter as a Victoria-era woman, brought back to life by an eccentric scientist following an apparent suicide. She is awakened, sure, but she is stunted emotionally, mentally and physically. As her mind catches up with her body, she seeks to learn about humanity and all it has to offer, the light and the dark side.
What follows is without a doubt Lanthimos’ most ambitious film to date. From its creative and vast production design and costumes, to its fearless and unflinching subject matters. It’s unafraid to shock you with grotesque bodily gore, or explicit or manic sex scenes, or characters who lack the knowledge of social norms. It’s unafraid to go out on a limb and have you be intrigued enough to follow.
Emma Stone turns in one her best performances as the main lead Bella. The complexity of her character, an adult with the mind of a child, is comendable. Stone’s talents are on full display as she grows to learn that world around her is more complicated and limiting that she would like it to be, a showcase for Stone, whose goes from a curious, stunted child to mature, manipulative adult.
The rest of the cast match her performances. The stand out being Marc Ruffalo playing an unscrupulous rake of a lawyer who sees a kindred spirit in Bella, and seeks to whisk her away from her kept life. His attempts to take advantage of her emotionally and sexually only give way to Bella figuring out she is the one in control in the relationship. Willem Defoe and Ramy Youssef have unusual chemistry as a pair of scientists and care-takers for Bella.
Poor Things, is aiming for a variety of tones that range from anarchic to contemplative. Truly putrid body horror backgrounded by divine production design and costumes that will garner much praise come award season. It’s tone and aesthetics might push many to their breaking point, but I think the key here is that, even while its pushing people’s boundaries, its not attempting to play its extremity off as something to lauded or be in awe of. This is the world of the movie, and if you can’t roll with it, it isn’t asking you to.
This movie will not work for all, but feels like a big step forward with all the themes that Yorgos and his collaborators have been building upon for a while. His previous films while grounded in more realistic settings, Poor Things is a big swing that is playing in a vast and fantastic world that can only be seen to be believed.
