Movie Review: Poor Things
What We Liked
What We Didn't Like
Every year, I hope for one film that shows me something that I’ve never seen before. Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things might satisfy that request for the next several years. A deeply weird, beautifully constructed, and extremely horny steampunk fantasy, the auteur’s latest isn’t for everyone. But for those who get on its wavelength, it’s one of the greatest film experiences of 2023.
Emma Stone gives the performance of her career as Bella, a pregnant young woman who dies attempting suicide and is resurrected by Willem Dafoe’s mad scientist Godwin (just call him God), who puts the infant’s brain in her body as a science experiment. God and one of his med students (Ramy Youssef) study for research purposes, watching as her brain develops and Bella gains control over her body. But as Bella discovers sex, she becomes much more interesting to some of the men, including a European dandy (Mark Ruffalo) who convinces her to run away with him.
All of this is told through Lanthimos’ absurd filter. The director is fond of aesthetics that recall a more Victorian/Steampunk vision of Tim Burton; in addition to airships, cruise liners, and sprawling estates, the sets are brimming with complex scientific equipment and hybrid animals God has created just for the fun of it. Lanthimos’ fondness for fisheye lenses is in full effect, and the film toggles back between black and white and color as Bella becomes more assertive and aware. It’s a lush, gorgeous film; even viewing it via screener on my laptop, I gasped at the visuals several times.
Lanthimos, the director of The Lobster and The Favourite, is an acquired taste, and his provocative style might turn some viewers off. The film is one of the most sex-filled of the year; discovering her body and the pleasures that come from sex is one of the ways the film showcases Bella’s growing awareness and liberation, and the constant sex scenes – including a stretch where Bella works at a brothel – might be too much for casual moviegoers. But the film is never gratuitous; the film is interested not only in sexuality as a part of being human, but in how men often only twist that for their own gain and become frustrated and controlling when the same freedom a woman shows in the bedroom is manifested in other areas.
Most of the men in Bella’s life seek to control her. Despite the film’s Frankenstein-inspired plot, Godwin is the warmest presence in her life, but even he primarily sees her more as a science experiment than as a human being (Dafoe, perhaps unsurprisingly, is fantastic in the role, buried beneath scarred prosthetics). Ruffalo’s dandy – an over-the-top, over-confident buffoon and braggart – is the film’s villain, and the actor is hilarious in the role, sniveling and whining and waddling around with an enormous (hopefully fake) derriere. A philosopher she meets on a cruise (Jerrod Carmichael) seems to take pleasure in showing Bella life’s ugly truths. Only Youssef’s character seems to genuinely care for and love her, and even he is too weak-willed to fight for her when Ruffalo’s character takes her away.
Emma Stone in “Poor Things.”
The description might sound like the film is bleak stuff, but far from it. Lanthimos is a director of comedies first and foremost, and Poor Things rivals Barbie as the comedy of the year (and the two might make for a delightful and twisted double feature). Both a comedy of manners (Bella’s bluntness in the face of refined society is the source of big laughs), laced with a bit of farce and deeply dark humor, it’s an often shocking and laugh-out-loud bit of comedy. But the laughs never overshadow the whimsy of Lanthimos’ story or take away from the bleaker edges that cut through. It’s a movie with a great deal on its mind, from the oddness of humanity to the beauty of life to the control of men. While it might be a too blunt in its final minutes, when a character’s desire to rid Bella of her sexuality makes the subtext text, it’s like no other movie released in 2023.
Much of that is due not just to Lanthimos’ idiosyncratic direction but also his collaboration with Stone, who continues to prove herself one of our funniest and most versatile actresses. It would be tempting to call this acting a case of “most acting” instead of “best” – and as Bella hobbles around with her tics and clumsiness early on, a case could be made for that. But Stone gives a truly wonderful performance, imbuing the character with agency, intelligence, curiosity and power. It’s possibly the best role of her career and one of the best performances of 2023.
I suspect Poor Things, like much of Lanthimos’ work, will be divisive. It should be; that’s often what originality brings about. But if you’re willing to take a chance on it, it’s easily one of the best movies of this year.
