Poor Things Movie Review

Emma stone knocks it out of the park in career best performance in beautiful and bizarre film.

Poor things a film where you can be weird, funny, empowering, and surprisingly wholesome in a way only Yorgos Lanthimos can conceive of and execute on screen. The way he channels films like Frankenstein and Edward Scissorhands but making it entirely Yorgos is such a great feat from a filmmaking standpoint, acting, and thematically. He can balance tones of whimsy, melancholy, bizarre imagery, and raunchy crazy scenes seamlessly without it feeling messy or like they clash they go

together so well.

In the fantastical bizarre version of Yorgos vison of London Dr Godwin Baxter latest experiment goes unexpectedly right and Bella Baxter played by Emma stone is born after Godwin put the brain a baby into her mother’s body who killed herself. The character of Bella and the story of poor things Starts out like Edward Scissorhands and Frankenstein but then it becomes this tale of Bella at an accelerated rate learn about herself and the world. I love as the movie progresses; we see with this

innocence and infectious enthusiasm for life and how that affects the people around her and who she meets as she goes out into the world. Godwin recruits a protégé played by Ramy Youssef to watch and oversee Bella as she learns and becomes more and more of a whole person. Then Godwin Asks Ramy if he wish’s to marry Bella only if she consents to the marriage and he agrees. Then when Duncan played

by Mark Ruffalo shows up and throws a wrench in that plan by convincing Bella, she needs to go with him, and they go traveling London and Paris together. The performances in the movie are Phenomenal and Emma Stone should win her 2nd best actress Oscar the way she conveys Bella’s Journey Physically from the beginning of the film where she is like a child to when she is traveling with Duncan and there having sex and she comes into her power and Duncan can’t control her no matter how hard he tries. I love how Bella exposes the hypocrisy of certain things in society like if you’re a woman and like sex or making a living by having sex your somehow lesser and questions that societal thinking. I mentioned Mark Ruffalo as Duncan this is his best performance of his career; he is so fearless playing against

type as this asshole who you are laughing at and cannot handle someone like Bella who will not be controlled by him or anyone else. William Defoe is so good in this movie like Ruffalo playing against type not only for him as an actor but against the mad scientist character he is so tender, loving, and caring for Bella like a father figure but is also so nuanced in showing the trauma from his father not only

physically but emotionally in how he cares for Bella for better and for worse.

The Technical achievements of this film are Steller like the acting in this film, the cinematography is so beautifully shot and realized bringing these fantasy versions of London and Paris to life. The colors Yorgos and the cinematographer Robbie Ryan choose really to leap off the screen and are so vivid for you as the viewer they really immerse you in the world. The Score is so good and for a first-time composer Jerskin Fendrix does such a great job creating music that accentuates and complements what you see onscreen and is so memorable. The way Yorgos uses black and white and the 4:3 aspect ratio in the beginning is brilliant because it creats this fairy tale like beginning for Bella’s character and sets you up that this is not a grounded movie you are in a fantasy world.

I love this movie so much it was one of my favorites of 2023 love it’s a film about discovery of life and finding joy even when finding out how terrible it can be, I really recommend you seek this one out it a 5 out of 5 for me.