Poor Things (2023)

 'Poor Things' is the second colaberation between the stange Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos and actress Emma Stone; their first film together was the 2018 historical drama 'The Favorite', for which co star Olivia Coleman won the best actress Oscar for her portrail of Queen Ann.

'Poor Things' is based on the 1992 novel of the same name by Alister Gray. It is a sort of lady Frankenstein story. In late 19th century London (in the source material its Glasgow) a deformed scientist (Willam Defoe) resurrects the body of a pregnate woman (Stone) who had thrown herself off a bridge, he implants the fetel brain into her skull to create a new person.

What we have here is a very well written, very well paced film, with a solid enasmble cast, interesting ideas to explore, lots of subtext, creative camera work and gorgeously inventive sets, which all play second fiddle to the lead performance. Emma Stone is fantastic in this, it's the best work she's ever done. 

Emma plays a character who when we first meet her, despite being in a full grown body, is essentially a toddler. She walks in a jerky, awkward manner, eats as a young child might, and speaks in a clipped, basic and uncensored way. Over the course of the film we see her character, Bella Baxter, grow up at an accelerate pace. She proves in fact to be quite bright, while her ability to speak improves markedly, she continues to express herself in a kind of charmingly blunt shorthand. The performance of her dialogue is my single favorite aspect of this film.

As Bella has not gone through the normal, gradual process of growing up, she is not attuned to social mores and self censorship. She is a frank person and a person in a hurry to gain new experiences. She embarks on a European trip with a self involved and lecherous lawyer played delightfully by Mark Ruffalo, she surpasses him intellectually and sexually in fairly rapid order.

The sexuality of the film and Ms. Stones performance has gotten a lot of attention, it is pretty in you face. She really goes for it. The sexuality however is just one way in which the film acts subversive. For a movie based on a book written by a man born in 1934, directed by a Gen Xer and staring a Millennial, its sensibilities struck me as rather Gen Z. Using "Woke" as a descriptor rather then a value judgment, this film is very woke.

"Poor Things" is the kind of film that might really have collapsed under the weight of its own pretension, but I think it avoided doing so because it was so intricately thought out, put together and executed (only once very late in the film did I feel it lag a little). There are large audiences for whom this film is decidedly not for, but for others it can be quite the cinematic experience. ***1/2