POOR THINGS (2023) 9/10
WHAT A CONFUSING PERSON YOU ARE...
Occasionally, a work of art reminds me of just how powerful a collection of creative minds can be, their achievement towering over the rest of the form. Collaborative art is so difficult, and usually results in something mediocre with the edges shaved off. Not this film. Poor Things is part Candide, part Bride of Frankenstein, with a soupçon of Barbie on acid thrown in.
It employs gorgeous, colorful, and innovative sets, wonderful cinematography, a soundtrack with an unbelievably unorthodox sonic palette, and actors at their best. All under the steady hand of director Yorgos Lanthimos. He is a true auteur, exactly what is meant by the French Nouvelle Vague term. His The Lobster (2015) is just plain bizarre and quite funny, as is The Favorite (2018), both of which I adored. His latest, Bugonia, (2025, reviewed here) is also weird and original, and I enjoyed it immensely. Stef did figure out Bugonia’s twist immediately, and liked it, but not as much as I did, not catching on until the very end.
Sometimes Lanthimos whiffs, such as with Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017), and Kinds of Kindness (2024), but he is always interesting and this utterly bizarre feast for the eyes suggests he is as good as anyone working today. Poor Things reminds me of the great French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who directed some of my favorite films of all time, such as Delicatessen (1991), City of Lost Children (1995), and the irresistibly adorable Amélie (2001). Jeunet easily makes my top ten all- time directors list. Nonetheless, this film is wholly original.
Emma Stone’s previous work with Lanthimos, such as her turn in the gloriously off-kilter The Favorite, does hint at this performance. Stone won the Golden Globe as the gleefully odd Bella, well-deserved for this tour de force. Lanthimos also continues to give her room to shine in their most recent collaboration, the aforementioned Bugonia. I’ve always liked Mark Ruffalo as a serious actor, but sheesh, he is hysterical here. He plays Duncan Wedderburn, a pompous, swaggering, insecure and magnificently ridiculous cad who falls hopelessly in love with Bella. He was deservedly nominated for Best Supporting Actor in this role. Willem Dafoe is also perfect as the sad, neo-Dr Frankenstein. Dafoe is almost always good, even in such cheeseburgers as John Wick, which I must confess I like. Lanthimos also slips in a quiet nod of affection to Rainer Fassbinder, by casting his muse, the wonderful Hanna Schygulla, as the woman on the boat whom Ruffalo’s preening libertine Wedderburn wants to throw overboard-a lovely touch.
It’s not up to me to call this a feminist film, like I believe Barbie to be (which I loved), so I will pass on that. Let’s just say Stone’s robotish character is definitely a woman who does whatever the hell she wants without the slightest nod to convention, and her arc is pure. It might not be for everyone, with its casual placement of various chimeras like a duck with a dog’s head or a human with a goat’s brain. There is also very matter-of-fact sexuality, reduced to pure physiology. This doesn’t bother me at all, too many people are hung up on the simple biological process.
I don’t want to spoil it, so there is not that much point in going through the plot, or Bella’s unique origin story. I suppose I’m going to have to read the book upon which it is based, by the late Alasdair Gray. Suffice it to say that the sets were magnificent, steampunk like Jeunet, but unique. The music was perfectly freakish, there were sounds coming from instruments I could not identify. Jerskin Fendrix (that cannot be his real name) is someone to follow, and Lanthimos wisely used him again for Bugonia. As I said before, the acting was top shelf, Lanthimos is at his exuberantly warped best, and he wisely teamed up again with Robbie Ryan as cinematographer, who won an oscar for his work on The Favorite.
Do not miss this, and try and find it in an actual theater, although may be tough two years out from release. When we saw this at AMC, the parade of abject mediocrity in the numerous trailers before this triumph did not give a hint at the masterpiece that was to come. It makes me cherish weirdos like Lanthimos even more.