Poor Things is a magical realist drama from director Yorgos Lanthimos. I’ve been impressed by Lanthimos’s previous films, The Favorite, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, and was won over by The Lobster. His films are undoubtedly an acquired taste, but I believe that Poor Things may be the most compelling yet accessible film he’s done yet.
The world of the film lives in a fabulist parallel reality to our own. The color choices, costuming, and set design are as dreamlike and dramatic as Fellini’s Casanova. The use of practical sets, miniatures, and other mixed-media gives the film an out-of-time quality.
Emma Stone shines as Bella Baxter, a young woman brought back from the dead without her consent by a mad doctor. She undertakes the archetypal bildungsroman through the course of the film. It’s a journey of self, societal, and sexual discovery.
The film employs ample amounts of bawdy humor and Mark Ruffalo delivers a hilarious performance as Bella’s dangerous lover. While the film is full to the brim with nudity and naughtiness, I never felt like any scene was taken too far. Poor Things is equally an ode to women’s agency and bodily autonomy as it is a colorful, raunchy fairy tale.
Poor Things joins Wes Anderson‘s Asteroid City as an example of creative indie films that are more transportive than mega-blockbusters. It’s indicative of a potential film movement where directors treat film like painting or sculpture — the artist expresses what they feel and each audience reaction can be subjective.
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