In 2018 director Yorgos Lanthimos and star actress Emma Stone were teamed up for The Favourite, a film that won seemingly everyone over and earned Olivia Colman an Oscar for her leading role. Now, Stone takes the lead in a Lanthimos film with Poor Things, the director's latest and an exciting adaptation of Alasdair Gray's bizarre but hilarious 1992 novel. Poor Things to put it in simple terms is a gender-swapped Frankenstein, but that only scratches the surface of the story.
The film follows Emma Stone as Bella Baxter, whom Dr. Godwin Baxter (played by Willem Dafoe) has created through taking the brain of a newborn and putting it into the body of a full grown woman. She is then engaged to Ramy Youssef's Max McCandles, an associate of Baxter's, before deciding she needs to experience the world before doing so, being whisked off by the off-putting chauvinist Duncan Wedderburn (played by Mark Ruffalo). These adventures lead her down a path of discovery, may it be intellectual or emotional or more often than not sexual, learning about herself and the complicated nature of the world around her as she essentially grows up.
This movie is weird with a capital W, but that's what I really love about it. Lanthimos and production designers James Price & Shona Heath create such a vibrant world with genuinely some of the best sets I've ever seen. It looks very stagey and theatrical at times but also very lived in, and the amount of detail whether it be the buildings or all of the props is marvelous. Cinematographer Robbie Ryan adds to the over the top absurdity of the world by constantly shooting this in interesting ways, including a bunch of the fisheye shots that he used in The Favourite. The score by Jerskin Fedrix only adds even more, giving an at times beautiful and at times dissonant weirdness that fits the story perfectly.
But as incredible as the craft is here, it would all be for naught if it weren't for Emma Stone, who not only steps up to the plate, but delivers the year's best performance in my opinion. I've always loved Emma Stone, but she is truly on a whole new level here. What makes this performance so unique is that she is essentially playing the entire childhood of a character, all while bringing a sexuality to it that provides a fascinating contrast. At the beginning of the film she has to portray a full grown newborn, which is hilarious the entire time, but then she has to show the intellectual growth of Bella over the course of the film, holding on to the same childlike innocence but becoming more and more intelligent as she progresses through her journey. Upon discovering sex and sexuality she is forced to bring a whole new element to the character, delivering something sensual but still intellectually immature. She also deserves a round of applause for her commitment here, there are more sex scenes than I can count and she gives them her all, spending more time naked than you ever expect from an A-list star, but that element of the character is crucial to the story and she kills it. There's just so many different layers to this performance, it is often hilarious, at times profound, and seeing her change the way she performs as the character develops is just brilliant.
The supporting cast is also really great. Mark Ruffalo has earned a lot of praise and it is very justified. He makes Wedderburn a hilariously pompous and self obsessed misogynist that only really wants Bella for sex but then gets upset when she acts with autonomy. It's so far from who Ruffalo is as a person so seeing him bite into something this over the top and different is a blast. The character is a ton of fun to hate and a lot of that is thanks to Ruffalo. Dafoe and Youssef are also great, Dafoe very much has a fatherly role and he plays it very endearing. Youssef meanwhile is just a man full of admiration. He is drawn in by his admiration of Godwin and then falls in love with Bella. There are plenty of other great side performances, Jerrod Carmichael and Kathryn Hunter to name a couple, but aside from the main four my favourite was without a doubt Christopher Abbott as General Blessington. This character doesn't come in until the end of the film, which is a bit of a shame as Abbott is hilarious. He essentially plays an even worse version of what Ruffalo is doing, and he kills it all the way up to a magnificent final scene. I've loved his work for a while and this is yet another great performance by him albeit for a limited time.
While there's so much to love here it isn't quite perfect. I wanted so bad for this to be my favourite of the year, but there are some unfortunate pacing issues that hold it back. The first hour or so is mostly all engaging, but there is a long stretch after that where the film is still great, but has points that just lose energy a bit more than I'd like. There were also some sound issues early on. I'm not sure if that was just the theatre I was in but the dialogue in the first act just seemed too quiet which I struggled with.
Those issues do not limit this from being great though. The amazing performances and magnificent craft make this one of the very best of the year. There has been a lot of discourse against sex scenes in movies which I find pretty silly as sexuality is integral to some stories, but this is a magnificent middle finger to that ideology. If you can't handle seeing that on screen this ain't for you, but this is one I'd highly recommend even just for Emma Stone's pitch perfect performance. It's weird as hell but in the best way.
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