After 'The Favourite', leading Greek Weird Wave exponent Yorgos Lanthimos reteams with screenwriter Tony McNamara and Emma Stone to adapt Alasdair Gray’s 1992 cult novel... Their combined efforts make 'Poor Things' a complete triumph.
ADVERTISEMENTWhen the eccentric and grotesquely scarred scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe) takes his student Max McCandles (Rami Yousef) aside after class one day, he asks the fresh-faced apprentice if he’s interested in a secret project of his.
Little does he know quite how unorthodox Baxter’s methods have become...
The confidential experiment in question is Bella (Emma Stone), Dr. Baxter’s creation. She is a young woman brought back to life after a mysterious suicide attempt, and behaves like a blank slate unmoored by social niceties or the prejudices of her times. The specificities of her condition shall not be spoiled here, but safe to say that Bella’s body and mind are not synchronized. Yet.
She is learning, and Baxter needs some assistance.
Confined to their house, Bella throws tantrums, develops language and motor skills, and explores her increasingly insatiable sexual yearnings.
“She grabbed my hairy business!” exclaims housekeeper Mrs. Prim (Vicki Pepperdine), after a breakfast encounter with Bella.
Indeed, she did grab her hairy business, and with the newly unveiled joys of masturbation come an increasing curiosity for the human condition... And all urges only need a little push, which comes in the form of Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), a rakish solicitor who recognizes Bella’s expanding hunger for the outside world. The moustachioed cad wastes no time in whisking her away to Lisbon, Alexandria and Paris – with the begrudging avail of the father figure she calls ‘God’, as Baxter realises he cannot keep Bella cooped up any longer.
What starts as an erotic escapade – routinely punctuated by some sessions of “furious jumping” – sees Bella grow progressively aware of the injustices and politics of the world, as well as what society expects of womanhood. But considering that agency (sexual or otherwise) is threatening to the gatekeeping patriarchy, what starts as a hedonistic adventure “full of sugar and violence” for some soon morphs into a “diabolical fuckfest of a puzzle” for others...
Let’s not mince words or succumb to hyperbole: Poor Things is a delirious masterpiece.
Having won the Golden Lion at last year’s Venice Film Festival and recently bagged the Golden Globe for Best Film (Comedy or Musical), it is one of this young year’s must-see movies. It’s hardly a complete shock considering the cinematic treats absurdist maestro Yorgos Lanthimos has been treating us to over the years (The Lobster, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, The Favourite), but Poor Things feels like the culmination of a vibrant filmography that has been going from strength to strength. And if Euronews Culture hadn’t been operating under a strict set of rules for our Best Movies of 2023 selection, you can bet it would have easily made the podium.
Set sometime around 1900 in a steampunk-meets-Disneyland world, Lanthimos truly makes the source material his own. So much so, it’s strange to think that the source material is not his own.
His delirious satire operates at a crossroads where Mary Shelley’s "Frankenstein" coexists with Luis Buñuel, Georges Franju (Eyes Without A Face), “Pygmalion” and a few noticeable callbacks to "Alice in Wonderland". Still not sold? Maybe this will help. Lanthimos uses the language of Gothic conventions to talk about the role of men and women in society, as well as address the question: Can people be improved?
Put simply: If Barbie gently poked the patriarchal bear last year, Bella makes the imperious ursine her bitch.
Every set, prop, costume (and cuter versions of The Island of Dr. Moreau’s hybrid creatures) are something truly special to behold within the context of a gleeful voyage of self-discovery.
Production designers Shona Heath and James Price, as well as costume designer Holly Waddington deserve massive plaudits for their work. Every fantastical frame populated by their work is an eye-popping feast for the eyes, which often recalls the very best of Terry Gilliam and Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s hyper-stylised worlds. Joining this team is director of photography Robbie Ryan, who frames the world (both in black-and-white and garish colours) with frequent fish-eye lens - a device he utilised previously in The Favourite and one which here reflects the detached yet wonder-filled POV of Bella, as well as her continuing questioning of herself and the universe that surrounds her. All work in unison to bring Lanthimos’ unique vision to life – and it’s a sight to behold.
Emma Stone is phenomenal throughout and delivers one of her greatest performances to date. (She was also rewarded with the Golden Globe for Best Actress, which should put her in good stead for the Oscars in March.) Her wonderfully weird “pretty little retard”, as McCandles refers to her when he first meets her, is a role she’ll be remembered for. Whether it’s her facial expressions, her subtly evolving voice timbre, some enviable dancing, or the line delivery of gems like “let’s touch each other’s genital pieces”, Stone truly embodies the “changeable feast” that is Bella.
Her note-perfect performance of a woman refusing to conform also buttresses the richness of the material. There are pages to be written about how Bella and her growing agency and worldviews symbolize (and ultimately upend) all the typical tropes that female protagonists are traditionally assigned on screen. Moving from ingenue to whore to enlightened being, as well as – by design – both mother and daughter, Bella is a complete and fascinating being, one rarely seen with so many declinations.
Stone is matched by Ruffalo, who is having a great time here as the slimy bachelor who progressively loses his clasp on a situation he thought he was puppeteering. Both actors are blessed with Lanthimos’ mastery of tone and Tony McNamara’s screenplay, as there’s no shortage of laugh-out-loud lines throughout Poor Things. Yorgos’ whimsy is perfectly harmonized with McNamara’s mordantly funny script, one of the screenwriter’s best yet. Long may their alchemy thrive.
ADVERTISEMENT“It’s all very interesting what is happening,” says Dr. Baxter, underselling proceedings somewhat.
More accurately, Doctor, what is happening is a raunchy, stylish, thematically layered and, above all, hysterically funny triumph.
Thank you for the diabolical fuckfest.
Poor Things is in cinemas now.
