‘Poor Things’- Film Review: Give Emma Stone Another Oscar

How was it fair to wait another three months for Poor Things to finally be released to the public? It had the perfect date only for Searchlight Pictures to move the release date during the most crowded time of the year. But anyway, how could one not have the proper anticipation for the latest collaboration between star Emma Stone and Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos, especially following the early word of mouth from the Venice Film Festival? Lanthimos is a director who requires an acquired taste for film fanatics since you’ll either find his films masterpieces or pretentious. I don’t have a strong opinion of him since I’ve only seen the period piece The Favourite, one of my favorites of 2018. With Poor Thing, it’s perfect for him to combine the strange and beautiful to achieve a lovely take on the classic Frankenstein tale with a coming-of-age twist poised to become the weirdest Oscar contender to take notice of.

What’s the Story: Based on the 1992 novel of the same name by Alasdair Gray, a woman (Emma Stone) fell to her death after leaping from a bridge. Found in the water, a surgeon from Victorian London named Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe) discovered she was pregnant with a child. So, deciding on her fate, he re-animated her by replacing her brain with her dead body, naming her Bella Baxter. Brought back to life, Bella has the mind of an infant, and Godwin sees her as a daughter figure despite being confined at home. One of his medical students, Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef), notices how Bella’s intelligence is increasing and falls in love with her. Though once sleazy lawyer Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo) is smitten with her, he takes Bella away to explore the endless parts of the world and the grand opportunity to learn more about herself.

A film gets massive points for exploring how we’re meant to live or discovering what it means to be human in our universe. Poor Things allows us to think and feel almost inspired, which differs from what anyone will go into with Lanthimos, of all directors, behind the camera. Something’s off with Bella in how she walks and her speech pattern. Eventually, she grows fascinated with the world without her father’s guidance. Without knowing her past life, she embraces the finer things, from eating culinary delights or discovering her sexuality through masturbation (gaining happiness) or how she describes sex as “furious jumping.” Not that Lanthimos and screenwriter Tony McNamara didn’t likely intend to make this a darker version of Barbie for adults, but Bella’s stance on the patriarchal system turns her around as a woman from a different perspective.

But it’s an ambitious way to get across these themes without having trouble balancing tones. As you’re watching, Bella finally has this grasp of society thrown through the wonders while on her travels, while learning not everything is perfect, from disappointments in everyday occurrences to death or poverty. And when it goes to being weird, it pulls you into going inside the mind of a beautiful creation through a different lens, crafting an excellent film that can be laugh-out-loud funny to near thought-provoking when it needs to be about how life goes through many stages, leaving us to understand our place.

However, nothing in Poor Things would have worked to its strength with Emma Stone as Bella Baxter because right as you leave the theater, all you’re going to think is her. Everything she does in this proves why she continues to be my favorite actress working today. Anybody who doesn’t at least love her has no right to an opinion when she has continued to take on one memorable role to another, and this is a performance where no one else comes to mind playing Bella, feeling as though it could’ve fallen apart with someone else in mind. The character growth Bella goes through on this journey of self-discovery makes her the most layered female character to come by all year, as she literally goes from a child to an adult inside an adult body and embodies these facets of how any human can feel. She deserved the Best Actress Oscar for La La Land, but there’s a strong chance she could win her second Oscar in the coming months.

Aside from Stone, Ruffalo as Duncan might’ve given his best performance, as some of the best comedic moments came from him, which is funny because it’s hard to remember the last time he took on a non-serious role. He’s somebody who believes he’s better than everyone, and that lust for Bella ultimately has these on-and-off feelings once she gets more innovative. So many of his scenes got the hardest laughs, including him throwing books off the dock like a jock picking on the nerd at school. And there’s more to Willem Dafoe as God than making him the typical mad scientist based on his disfigured appearance. This also includes the likes of comedian Ramy Youseff, Jerrod Carmichael as the cynic Harry Astley, and even Margaret Qualley with her brief screen time.

Stone is incredibly daring and dedicated throughout, earning its R-rating for a number of reasons. This movie has the most sex and nudity I’ve seen all year, which surprises me because not many movies these days are willing to go that far to convey the horniness of the main character. This will go out of their way to make them uncomfortable for some, and some will feel it’s too much, but you’ll get used to them after a while.

Everything captured from a technical standpoint to make this vision come to life was beautiful on the big screen. When transported to this world you want to enter, the visuals and production resemble something from a Terry Gilliam or Tarsem Singh film. Robbie Ryan’s cinematography changes styles through feeling uneasy with its disoriented fish-eyed lens or having the first half shot in black-and-white and transitioning into color once Bella leaves for Lisbon and other places, especially when the visuals in the vibrant sky complement the ship’s surroundings at sea. But you should also note Holly Waddington’s fabulous costume design and Jerskin Fendrix’s unconventional score. But the surreal nature is what I appreciate more than finding it baffling how anyone loves Beau is Afraid. At least this made sense, including weird animal hybrids seen in nightmares (a pig head on a chicken body).

If there’s anything that took it away from being a perfect fantasy, the third act stretched itself too thin when I thought it was about to wrap up, only to go on for another 20 minutes with the introduction of a new character. Quite the surprise with whom they got without spoiling, but it was honestly the only time it started to feel longer than expected, though never dull. But I can quickly forgive it with a great ending. Not everybody will gravitate towards this since the keywords some will describe are “artsy” or “pretentious to the over-hyped degree.” That’s on them for possibly not giving this a high chance. Now, seeing how this will be a firm favorite for the awards, it won’t win Best Picture, but it’s one to look out for.

Overall, Poor Things is thematically enchanting in the strange way only Yorgos Lanthimos can accomplish by questioning our philosophy. Emma Stone gives one of her best performances in a comic fantasy that lives up to the hype, despite not being as widely accessible as The Favoruite.