Poor Things Movie Review. Perhaps the Strangest Experience of 2024

Screwed up movies are worth their weight in gold. Even if the post-screening grade is low, they are surely memorable and inspire discussion in social circles. Poor Things is such a movie, not only being a weird seance that puts the audience to the test - provided they can tolerate the grotesque and eroticism as well as as a story that unfurls in crazy ways. This is a grand work concerning human life - featuring motifs like morality, male-female relations, and the ever-present question about the meaning of existence. The movie doesn't provide simple answers, but stimulates discussion.

Grotesque with a humoristic spin

If I hadn't seen the reactions of other viewers, I would have some doubts about how they would receive Poor Things. I went to the screening with a friend who doesn't usually choose such unusual films, and during the movie I looked at him from the side, wondering if these surprises and smiles were due to pleasure, or from the increasingly astonishing absurdity that was unfolding on the screen. And yet - he enjoyed it, so did I. Nevertheless, to appreciate this movie in full, one has to be open to absurdity.

The story is a modern reimagining of Frankenstein (at the same time, basing on a novel by Alasdair Gray). Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe) brings a deceased woman back to life and gives her a new name - Bella (Emma Stone). She has the mind of a child, but takes tremendous strides in her progress, and step by step she is getting to know both herself (even her own body) and the complex world, full of various conventions and inequalities.

Unfortunately, the reality presented in the movie is a little different that what we know firsthand. We have steampunk elements and color in the form of unusual characters standing in the protagonist's path. Sometimes safe, sometimes shamelessly perverse, for example, when we enter a brothel and get to know the diverse needs and desires of the men visiting it. Yorgos Lanthimos, the man behind the camera, deliberately plays with convention - with black-and-white images, he takes us into the current of classic Gothicism, nevertheless devoid of terrible horror, because it is broken by funny absurdity and a complete lack of scientists' experience in sexual matters, who appear like innocent children, although their experiment with bringing back to life is a denial of ethics.

The director serves a variety of unique shots - enhancing the absurdity or making us laugh thanks to their distortion - it is just like as we would visit a room of mirrors that grotesquely twist our reflections. On the other hand, for a movie that shows ugliness, cross-breeding animals, or intensely graphic surgeries, it still maintains a safe distance. The best example is Dr. Godwin Baxter, who gives the impression of a spooky, haunted scientist, with scars giving him almost the appearance of a monster. Despite this, Dafoe in this role does not inspire fear - he exudes paternal warmth and the aforementioned innocence. He plays God, but inside he remains a man - lonely and deserving of sympathy.

Poor Things, dir. Yorgos Lanthimos, Searchlight Pictures, 2023

Feminist fairy tale

In its lighter moments, Poor Things jumps into the field of an eccentric fairy tale that is supposed to reveal the truth about complicated human nature. Depicting strange sexual sensations, deceiving its conscience, and easily falling into mundane pleasures, to not focus on evil and poverty lurking literally a bit further, or death, which is our lot from the moment of birth. Years pass us by in the pursuit of money, love, intellectual nourishment for the mind, or the meaning of existence.

Bella's life quickly changes into a feminist success story. The woman, born into a male-oriented world, wants to free herself from it - with each new experience, and each new book read, she becomes an independent, strong character who decides for herself. This is somewhat of a "fuck-you" to patriarchy that would see a descendant of Eve trapped in a domestic environment, not sexually liberated, living large, and focusing on personal development. In fact, it's hard not to look at the men in Poor Things with some pity, as they seem completely helpless in the face of female energy.

This may be a sore to some viewers, but the counter to the feminist movement cannot be a "typical alpha male" fantastically depicted by Mark Ruffalo, who with his over-the-top facial expressions shows us the effect of playing with female fire. Is it the wimpy Max McCandless (Ramy Yoursself) the expected image of a man? I leave it for you to decide. The male-female relations in the film are somewhat of a reflection of current reality, but Poor Things never show the expected approach and doesn't give us clues to apply in real life. Instead, they put wrong schemes to laugh.

The composition is additionally reinforced with its teasing of the next chapters of the story - with scenes and titles as from an ancient drama. Nevertheless, the decorum isn't maintained here - we have vulgar and witty dialogue, and the world in the first scenes is seen from the viewpoint of childish Bella, who is just learning to speak, so she finds infantile, innocent terms for her discoveries. Hats off to Emma Stone, who for this role is a strong contender for an Oscar. She fantastically entered the mind of the heroine - she conveys her doll-like, awkward way of walking (especially at the beginning), shows the transformation from a naive woman to a well-read intellectual, and plays out bold, erotic scenes with great credibility.

Poor Things may be strange, but its is a masterpiece in my eyes . In the sea of pearls, a surprising specimen catches the eye, because it stands out in almost every element - and it would seem that there is nothing beautiful in it. A weirdo, inducing feelings of discomfort or distaste. And yet, upon closer acquaintance, this weirdo charms, pulls out disgusting rabbits from the hat, at first glance ugly, misshapen, mutated, and upon closer acquaintance, as it turns out, fascinating. All that remains is for me to return to the thought from the beginning - this extraordinary experience may repel, but it is so characteristic that it is worth experiencing, and paradoxically, one can fall in love with it.

OUR SCORE: 10/10