Poor Things (Movie Review)

 

⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

Yorgos Lanthimos is certainly no stranger to making his audience feel a strange whirlwind of perplexing and almost unidentifiable emotions throughout the varying lengths of his films. His first film Dogtooth is a deliberately unpleasant experience that acted as an allegory for what it's like to live in a household of overbearing parents and unrealistic expectations that enforce an almost diabolically cold world view. I can't say I enjoyed watching it, but it is certainly a film that has stuck with me since I saw it. This coldness is something that many audiences will struggle to resonate with, and I will admit that I myself, while appreciating and admiring Lanthimos's boldness, wasn't fully on board with. I enjoyed The Killing of a Sacred Deer but I was relatively lukewarm on The Lobster, which also boasted a unique concept that I personally didn't feel like was explored as well as it could've been.

Enter Poor Things, Lanthimos's most ambitious project of his unique career thus far. Funnily enough, this isn't the only movie released in 2023 to feature a doll-like girl to roam around in an unfamiliar world, soaking up the mechanisms of a modern industrialized society and forming her opinions on sex, work, gender roles and more (the other film that fits this description is Greta Gerwig's Barbie, which I and many others enjoyed). However, Lanthimos wants to explore many of the same topics Gerwig did but in a much less accessible manner and I am all the more thankful that he is so unafraid to do his own thing in the face of endless commercialism. 

The alternate steampunk aesthetic that Robbie Ryan created, which was inspired by Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula, was such a joy to look at and it so wonderfully captures all the feelings of being dropped into an unfamiliar world, much like what a child would feel upon entering the world for the first time. Colors burst onto the screen at so many points throughout the movie, especially during the second and third act. Jerskin Fendrix's score, much like the film around it, was surprisingly catchy and simultaneously creepy, comprised mostly of monotonous strings and repetitive melodies that match the off-putting vibe that Lanthimos has captured here.

So yes, while the film boasts an amazing aesthetic and sound, the greatest strengths lie in the film's humor and in Emma Stone's performance. Lanthimos lets the humor bubble to the surface in many scenes, and the humor is boosted significantly by Mark Ruffalo, who's comedic timing and delivery are actually spot on. I especially liked Godwin's (Willem Dafoe) burp bubble, which had the whole audience laughing every time in happened. The humor is what separates this film from Lanthimos's other projects for me, which were far too serious and cold considering how intentionally silly the concepts were, especially in, say, The Lobster. I absolutely loved the bulldog birds and the body-less horse carriages. As for Emma Stone's performance, this is nothing short of career best work from an actor with such a wide range. Throughout the course of the film's ever-so-slightly overlong 141 minute runtime, the progression of her performance from child-like, both in movement and in line delivery, to posh and elegant as the plot progresses alongside her was beyond impressive, and the recognition and praises she is receiving are more than earned. Her performance and the humor keeps the film consistently watchable even when the pacing loses a tiny bit of steam in the second act. 

It's clear to me that Lanthimos feels a lot of compassion towards the central character here, which is what makes it work so much better for me than some of his other projects. Bella's journey to adapt to the modern world, and her observations of how women are treated in a world run by men devoid of compassion, produces poignant, thrillingly original and often quite funny results. Even if these sorts of movies aren't typically your thing, if you were one of the millions who saw and liked Barbie, you owe it to yourself and to women to see what all the fuss is about with Poor Things.