Poor Things (2023)

Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos. Written by Tony McNamara

Poor Things, a woman’s journey of self-discovery, is a child blowing you a raspberry as it cartwheels past. An irreverent, but elegant, line of questioning where the incessant “why?”s succeed in making you look at what the questioner is pointing at, rather than the pointing finger. As the finger-pointer, Emma Stone delivers a performance she’ll be remembered by. 

She’s Bella Baxter, a mad scientist’s creation. A grown woman with a child’s brain placed inside, Poor Things is about her rapid maturing as she learns about and finds her place in the world, dealing with the weaker sex all the while. Her mind goes from one enthralled to its rampant id to a questioning conscience where she takes nothing for granted, and the robust intellectual framework she’s built to take in the world spells disaster for those who live by the status quo.

Lanthimos’ movie is a reflection of Bella’s heady exploration. Unhinged from expectations and any dusty conventions you can think of, the energy of the camera work is contagious, the experience giddy. The production design by Shona Heath and James Price is some cross between Victorian England, steampunk, and the art of Friedenrich Hundertwasser. It’s playful, mystical, askew. With the shenanigans unfolding around Bella, you need the surroundings to match. 

Stone gives one of the more full-bodied performances you’ll ever see, fighting, fucking, stuffing her face with tarts, throwing them back up, fingering polite society in its impolite places, and freeing herself of any preconceived notion of how things are done. Stone was perhaps destined to play Bella. Starting out as a comedic force before “dignifying” herself as a dramatic actress, Stone has the comedic timing and mannerisms down but adds the backbone required to stand straight when she wants to make herself clear. 

Because Poor Things wants to tickle you in the ribs, but it also wants to stand you back up, put a hand on your shoulder, and point a finger in your face so you don’t miss the point underneath all the frivolity. In enjoying its freewheeling energy, you almost forget there are walls to scale for Bella. Her story is chaptered with the limits wished upon her by a range of men, be they patriarchal, class-related, or gender-based. Some walls come down with the help of those who built them. Those who resist, well…

Poor Things delights in doing all the things we don’t do in polite society and satisfies by calling out all the things that don’t belong in polite society, yet somehow is accepted. A celebration of pure self-discovery, a broadside against the established order, and an exhilarating joy all the way.