Movies
“Poor Things” Is A Wonderful Fantasy Acid Trip
Poor Things is unique. It has a vibe of its own. Poor Things owns all its eccentricities and boasts its flavor of comedy and insight.
“The incredible tale about the fantastical evolution of Bella Baxter, a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter.”
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Writers: Alasdair Gray, Tony McNamara
Stars: Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe, Ramy Youssef
Release: February 27, 2024
IMDB
Poor Things is unique. It has a vibe of its own. Poor Things owns all its eccentricities and boasts its flavor of comedy and insight. For the fourth time, two-time Oscar Winner Emma Stone and five-time nominee director Yorgos Lanthimos team up for a clever comedy that leaves audiences with a decisive, and oft delightful, reaction.
The fantastical tale of Poor Things centers around Bella Baxter, played by Emma Stone. Bella was born of a science experiment and is experiencing life in a one-of-a-kind way. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe) hires an assistant, Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef), and they work with Bella as she learns how to behave as a young woman.
There comes a time where Bella wants to experience the real world, and it just so happens when Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo) enters center stage. The two bombastic characters fall for each other and take off on a horny young-romance honeymoon. In Between moments of furious humping, Bella begins to discover more about herself and more about the world, and such revelations drive a huge divide between the short-fused lovers.
Bella takes time with herself and discovers herself and female friendship. Taking up a job as a prostitute, the ever-evolving beauty starts to make notes about what statements and changes she wants to inflict on the world. Bella’s growth is a storyline perpendicular to that happening to her father, Godwin. The legendary surgeon of this unique urban landscape is ill and knows his final days are coming. He wishes to see his daughter again, and Bella makes a joyous reunion by returning home. Poor Things is a story that begins and ends in the same place, but the orbital journey is anything but smooth. Bella’s life event and light-bulb moments are hilarious pot holes that make it fun riding in the back seat watching everything unfold.
Poor Things is strange. It is totally its own. The adopted script by Alasdair Gray and Tony McNamara has its own definition of humor, and that combined with Lanthimos and cinematographer Robbie Ryan’s strange visual aesthetic of a Willy Wonka Victorian England makes for a vacuuming piece of entertainment.
The fantasy inspired look of Poor Things works in tandem with the Oscar nominated screenplay. Without being overly aggressive, Gray and McNamara bring about a twisted tale of Beauty and the Beast, Alice In Wonderland and Frankenstein that has an explicit R rating.
The base of this concept is delightful. Children are the most honest people in the world. They say and do things without inhibition because they simply don’t know anything better. It’s pure bliss. And what if you infused that endless go-lucky vibe into a grown woman? The maturity of the body does not match that of the mind, and putting a baby in a woman’s body in elegant adult societal settings is an extra added layer of enjoyment.
I laughed out loud with the line “I must go punch that baby.” Everyone has had the thought in a public setting and Bella Baxter finally spoke it for everyone.
It’s not a coincidence that Bella is named Bella. You have a beautiful woman who has not seen much of the world stepping out and getting ensnared by the charisma of a beast by the name of Duncan Wedderburn. It’s a comedic knot tossed into the fray, but the reversal of the story plays out with an unseen smoothness. Wedderburn starts out as the handsome prince but devolves into a childish beast of a hang while Bella grows to love books and become curious about learning and understanding everyone around her. Bella is turning into Belle and growing up while Duncan is becoming the untrained reactive animal that he thought he had tamed.
Ruffalo is fucking hilarious in Poor Things. While Bella is an endearing child-like figure who earns the audience’s patience, Duncan’s floundering into a temper-tantrum is precisely what drives regular people mad. The crying and wailing is so over the top. The crash of confidence is the furthest thing from a smooth landing. Tears, excessive drinking, a plot for revenge and unjustified stubbornness come together for a role that allows Ruffalo to over-act in the best way possible.
And let’s tack on one more note on the Beauty And The Beast comp. The final act of Poor Things introduces a character from Bella’s past, Alfie Blessington. Played by Christopher Abbott (who I was introduced to in Sanctuary (2023)), Alfie invites Bella to an extravagant castle-esq environment and then attempts to literally and spiritually kidnap and extrapolate Bella’s freedom-seeking spirit. While Duncan was a childish animal, Alfie is a plotting predator. It’s a quick story tangent that teaches Bella a lesson and reminds the audience that the weaker links in life can show themselves in different ways.
The most monstrous looking character in Poor Things is Godwin Baxter. Willem Dafoe is literally playing a version of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Baxter is known for his medical experimentation, and in secret he becomes a father of science and a daughter. Poor Things tells the classic story of reinvigorating the undead but puts a comedic, optimistic twist on society’s acceptance of something new and different.
The character of Baxter is also wearing the scars of his past. Literally. We learn throughout the story that Baxter’s father experimented on his son with little to no consideration for the long term consequences. Bella is brought to life and Baxter does his best to protect his creation from the harmful world that surrounds them. Later in Poor Things he replaces Bella in the house with a new grown up child in Felicity, who (in what has-to-be-purposeful choice) is played by Margaret Qualley, who starred alongside Christopher Abbot in Sanctuary.
The idea of a parents wearing the scars of their parents methods and how that alters their views of parenting is an interesting one. Poor Things screenwriters Gray and McNamara paint a literal picture of this subconscious tug-of-war that many adults unknowingly (or knowingly) battle with everyday. Dafoe’s outlook on parents changes but his affection for Bella does not.
We have gone too long without praising Emma Stone. To take the role of Bella Baxter and literally bear it all both physically and emotionally is a ballsy effort. Stone must have the utmost confidence in herself because you can not step in front of the camera on Poor Things’ without knowing what you are doing is going to work. This unarrogant self-assuredness is aided by having worked with director Yorgos Lanthimos many times prior, including a project in The Favourite (2018) that resulted 10 Oscar nominations and one Oscer win for Olivia Coleman in the lead.
Stone’s brazen, loud, megaphone performance compared to the quiet, sullen, observant acting job by Lily Gladstone in Killers Of The Floor Moon (2023) made the Best Actress awards race between the two the most engaging of the entire Oscar season. Two remarkably different roles with two equally profound efforts.
Let’s forget the legacy part of the race as well. The majority of people thought that Gladstone was going to win because she not alone deserved it, but she would be a first time award winner and the first Native American actress to ever receive the honor. It had all the off-the-screen momentum. But Stone pulling off the upset (according to Vegas) means that she has two Academy Awards at 35 years old. There are only 15 actresses in Hollywood history who have won multiple Best Actress trophies. Stone is in elite company and she still has many decades of a career to go.
Before finishing up, it’d be disrespectful not to touch on the visual, technical achievements of Poor Things. The production design by Shona Heath and James Price is a fixture of wonderment. The imagination used to call back to a true historical era while also painting with an absurd abstract brush is something to behold.
Poor Things follows the same path as American Fiction (2023) with the musical score of Jerksin Fendrix. There aren’t needle drops, but the constant melodic tunes waving in the background sets a tone you don’t even know is being honed.
Poor Things took home four total Oscars and the 96th Academy Awards: Best Actress, Best Costume Design, Best Make and Hairstyling and Best Production Design. It was nominated for five additional awards: Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Picture, and Best Supporting Actor.
#Total Oscars#
As of early March 2024, Poor Things is streaming on Hulu.
STANKO RATING: A-
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