REVIEW: "Poor Things"

Genre: Comedy; Drama; Sci-fi.

Director: Yorgos Lanthimos

Writer: Tony McNamara

Starring: Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe, Ramy Youssef, Christopher Abbott and Kathryn Hunter

Yorgos Lanthimos has made some of the most weird and brilliant (and unconventional) comedies of the last decade (The Lobster and The Favourite), but he reaches his peak as one of the greatest cinematic geniuses with Poor Things - a social comment on the role of women and their objectification and the search for liberation disguised as a comedic journey of an incredible woman connecting with the world. In fact, Poor Things is a lot of things, but it manages to be always entertaining, funny and even tragic sometimes. It's the best 2023 film I've seen!

The movie starts by presenting us a woman who we later discover to be named Bella, who was brough back to life by a scientist, Dr. Godwin Baxter, who was a product of his father's experiments himself. Bella starts developing as a child trapped in a full-grown woman body and Dr. Baxter hires Max McCandles to observe and report the many developments and discoveries of Bella. These men develop a protecting approach towards Bella both in the sense she's "just a child" and "she's a woman", but they cannot suppress her need to see the world outside and she runs off with Duncan Wedderburn. What promises to be a "sex trip" for Bella and Duncan later becomes a journey of personal liberation for Bella as she starts to use instead of being used, as she starts to think her own mind instead of doing what men ask her for. It's a beautiful journey that comes to a lovely and heartfelt end. This is a feminist epic and it presents the audience one of the most engaging on-screen heroines ever!

Poor Things should not be reduced as a movie about feminine liberation, but as a movie about the constant search for the new, the constant crave to know, to do better, to be fulfilled! Many may describe it as "if Freud decided to make a film" and while we cannot deny the high number of sex scenes, they don't come empty and these same scenes change in both tone and meaning as Bella blossoms as a woman with her own mind. There's the animal-side of sexuality and there's also the human-side of it - it always displays a sex-positive attitude, but it also shows the different stages of maturity. It's a movie about the most urgent human impulses, including the need to wander and to be wondered. A note about the tender message to parents: no matter how far your children may go or how long they can be far from you, they will always come back, because they will always know where home is.

The movie succeeds so beautifully because of a triangle of geniuses: Yorgos Lanthimos in the directing duties, balancing every aspect of it; Tony McNamara's writing, with some memorable and epic lines that balance comedy with real non-empty meaning; and Emma Stone's electric performance as she takes the central stage. It's Stone's best performance so far (she's even better than she was in Battle of the Sexes and La La Land) as she found a character that suits her charismatic and showy acting style - she's particularly good at her most grothesque and she finds the right dramatic tone for her character in the last act. She's marvelous to look at and she's able to engage the audiences.

The rest of the cast also excels here: Mark Ruffalo has never been this unhinged, yet completely charming, in a very sexual and "hate me" way, delivering one of the most interesting (and hilarious) performances of his career; Willem Dafoe starts as a creepy scientist but he smartly handles Dr. Baxter with a tender sensibility as the audiences start seeing him more as a father than an unorthodox man of science; and Rami Youssef, as the bright eyed Max delivers some naïve charm as the man who has fallen in love for Bella since day one. Kathryn Hunter and Christopher Abbott deliver some scene-stealing performances and theirs are some of the biggest key scenes in the whole movie. A golden cast with actors at the top of their game!

One thing that also plays a great role in the storytelling are the visuals. The colorful symphony of Robbie Ryan's cinematography, the production design works of James Price and Shona Heath and the sci-fi/gothic/victorian/modern costume design of Holly Wadington create a fantastic world for Bella's adventure. You can see where the inspiration comes from, but nothing really mirror the actual reality of our world - Poor Things' Lisbon and Paris are completely different cities from our reality's, yet they keep their essence, for example. Every scene looks like a painting, every set has some sort of a fantastic and distinguished element. Every outfit is just impressive and character-tailored. Great makeup and hair works and some subtle visual effects give it an extra charm and sense of fantastic. Also, hats off to Jerskin Fendrix for the dope original score - it played on repeat on my mind - it feels fresh, original and as weird as Bella's world!

So, Poor Things is a cinematic wonder. I don't remember a movie that was able to merge so many profound and relevant themes with an enternaing and audiece-friendly pace approach. Bella Baxter's personal journey is not only beautiful to testify on-screen but it's also extremely relatable in so many points if you have the openess to see it. Lanthimos' richest and most entertaining film of his career so far. Extremely unorthodox, but perfect. A gem! Bravo!

RATING: 10 / 10