Pan and Slam

Poor Things

R 2h 21m

• Director
  • Yorgos Lanthimos
• Stars
  • Emma Stone
  • Mark Ruffalo
  • Willem Dafoe

by Jason Koenigsberg

If you are sick and tired of seeing the same type of safe movies over and over again and desire something different, disturbing, edgy, and guaranteed to make you laugh uncontrollably at situations that might make others uncomfortable, then Poor Things is the cure. This is by far the most original movie to come around in a long time. Director Yorgos Lanthimos is no stranger to making films that are playfully comedic in rather inappropriate ways and challenging the standards of what audiences consider normal. Poor Things is him at the top of his game and the best film of his career thus far. At first it seems like a riff on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein with the creator being a hideous deformed monster and his creation being a beautiful young woman along with some elements of The Island of Dr. Moreau. It is all of that but then Poor Things turns into so much more.

The mad scientist is played by Willem Dafoe under heavy makeup and his creation is played by Emma Stone. The movie opens up with stitches on a white blanket that likely foreshadow events that will unfold in the movie. Then the first shot where the camera moves in on the back of a woman in a navy blue gown against a dark blue sky. The camera moves closer to her and focuses on the back of her neck right before she jumps off a bridge and into a body of water. We later learn this woman was a pregnant Emma Stone and the scientist found her and saved her to use as an experiment where in a very comical scene describing how he created her, he did “the only logical thing possible, put the infant brain in the adult body”. If that sentence which accurately describes the set up to Poor Things outrages you, then this movie is probably one that you should skip. Once again, most people like consuming the same movies over and over again. Many movies are derivative and it it tough to be profound and original. Poor Things is for those that want something truly unique from a visionary artist. Yorgos Lanthimos uses similar camera angles and lenses that he has used in his previous works like a fish eye lens to make it look as if the audience is peeking in and watching something that we should not be seeing. He plays with voyeurism in a different way from other directors and a lot of the images are depraved and the movie acknowledges that it is pushing boundaries with its dialogue. The imagery throughout is surreal and reminiscent of Terry Gilliam and James Ivory pictures both with glorious black and white cinematography and vibrant color photography that looks more like watercolors and pastel portraits than anything that can be found in reality. Poor Things creates a stylish dream world.

It’s visually stunning but one of the main reasons to see Poor Things is because of the performances. Emma Stone gives the best and by far most uninhibited performance of her career. This is the second time working with Yorgos Lanthimos after 2018’s The Favourite and it is astounding that she is choosing to take such bold and brazen roles even after winning a Best Actress Academy Award for La La Land (2016). Most actresses careers are the opposite of hers. Emma Stone’s performance evolves as her characters brain develops and it is a marvel to witness. Mark Ruffalo is hilarious as an off kilter lawyer who becomes obsessed with Emma Stone’s character and Willem Dafoe is the doctor who created her shows the most restraint but delivers his dialogue as a scientist discussing his experiment would. All three of these performances never veer into crazy or unhinged territory despite how over the top the movie seems to go. The actors are in control and grounded in the strange reality they inhabit. By doing so they help make Poor Things one of the funniest unconventional movies in years. It plays like a gothic horror comedy.

Poor Things is more than just a dark comedy. It has deep philosophical notions dealing with Hobbes and Locke, dialogue about human nature and whether people are naturally good or evil. It also deals heavily with females and their roles in society but not in a patronizing, heavy handed way like most movies do. Poor Things is a great feminist allegory. It deals with men controlling women and their desire to keep them unintellectual, keeping them down to serve men. A funny scene involving a character taking books out of Emma Stone’s hands as she reads them and throwing them off a cruise ship resonates for more than just an offbeat laugh. She is surrounded by men who in various ways try to entrap her and control her treating her as property. The movie is most critical with its correlation of evil with Christianity. Crosses in Poor Things symbolize the ultimate evil with the most malicious character to Emma Stones. Its condemnation of religion and going against societal structure of marriage and women’s roles where they are defined as property of a man.

This is a brilliant freak show fairy tale about a woman learning the rules to the world she lives in and using science as a way to improve her life and not rely on the archaic ideas of what society, history, and religion say that a woman should be. Emma Stone grows and becomes empowered with her sexuality which Poor Things does not hold back from showing. Poor Things is one of the best movies of 2023 and the most original movie I have seen in a long time making me think back to how I felt sitting in the movie theater in 1999 and watching Being John Malkovich for the first time. A cinematic memory I know I will cherish for a long time.