The time has finally come to witness one of the most talked about movies of the year. Coming from acclaimed filmmaker, Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things synopsis is not an easy one to explain. To those who haven’t seen it will appreciate me not giving much away; whereas, those who have seen it will understand why. Essentially, it follows Bella Baxter (Emma Stone) who has been resurrected and goes on a an odyssey of self-discovery. I knew more than I should have due to the reviews I saw, which spanned from extremely negative to extremely positive. Mostly positive though. I can appreciate Lanthimos as a filmmaker and always will, even if The Killing of a Sacred Deer may always be my favorite film of his. I think Poor Things solidifies his quality and shows his strengths at knowing how to make the weird, good. This would be possible without the strengths of his cast.

Director Yorgos Lanthimos seemed to really hit fame with his 2015 film, The Lobster. For me, the first film I ever saw of his was 2017’s The Killing of a Sacred Deer – a flawless film that I will probably never watch again. If you know, you know. It was his 2018 hit, The Favourite, that really put him on this pedestal of great filmmakers. My feelings on that film is quite indifferent. I won’t get much into that other than the use of comedy, which leads me into my thoughts on Poor Things. I recalled not laughing once during The Favourite; however, I saw after my viewing where a lot of people found the film hilarious. Poor Things had a much larger audience attendance than The Favourite, which allowed me to witness what people find funny of Lanthimos’ films. Once again, I still didn’t quite feel that way. There were some good laughs, but I was more intrigued by those that I didn’t laugh at versus those who did. It is telling that Lanthimos purposely shows these scenes either for humor or for intrigue, and I happen to fall into the latter.

Intrigue & fascination are the two words that come to mind about how I felt watching this film. Lanthimos loves making his films feel like art films and it shows. Before we are introduced to these characters, he finds an eye-opening way of introducing the credits that makes the eye look everywhere on screen. He understands how to subvert expectations, which makes his films outstanding from start to finish. When we are introduced to the characters, it is told through black-and-white, reflecting Ramy Youssef’s mindset. Youssef portrays medical student, Max McCandless, who ends up working as the assistant to Willem Dafoe’s character, Dr. Godwin Baxter – sometimes known as God by Stone’s Baxter. McCandles is young, naive, and has yet to learn everything, which is why when he meets Godwin’s latest creation, he is tested when he finds himself attracted to Stone’s character. By the time Stone is fully aware of this humanlike emotions, this sets her off into her odyssey of self discovery as runs away with lawyer, Duncan Wedderburn, played by Mark Ruffalo.

Once she sets off on her quest, the film is no longer portrayed in black-and-white, transitioning into the perspective of Emma Stone’s character as Bella Baxter. The film never reverts back to black-and-white other than its beautiful title cards, showing that this is truly all about her character. She is immediately thrown into this new place, thinking that her new lawyer friend has the best of intentions of her, yet he is only taking advantage of her due to the circumstances, which displays themes of what grooming looks like and how he cares more about his own selfish needs than providing her with the best. When Stone’s character wants to go off and dance, his behavior can’t let her hog the spotlight, leading him to join her when she clearly doesn’t want to. It’s a tremendous performance from Ruffalo as he portrays a character deserving of his own demise, but it’s his conviction that sells the movie and brings the best laughs. When talking about the film, it is unfair to not bring up the award-worthy performance from Emma Stone.

Emma Stone has been on an interesting journey of her own as an actress. Since starting in Lanthimos’ last film The Favourite, it is clear that she is more interested in being tested as an actress. She has also starred in this year’s TV show The Curse. If you look at the Rotten Tomatoes score versus the audience score, it tells everything of what to expect. It’s a challenging watch that I don’t I would be as interested in watching if it wasn’t for Nathan Fielder’s The Rehearsal. Nonetheless, it is abundantly clear how eager Stone is to do these weird, challenging projects. She knows that they won’t damage her career. With her name recognition, it brings in more people to watch these projects. Her performance in this film is deserving to be Oscar-nominated. I have seen comparison of her performance to Simple Jack in Tropic Thunder. It’s an unfair comparison as she acts exactly like you think she would based on the circumstances and you actually see her mature and grow, making her performance necessary. Better yet, it’s an extremely confident performance that shows her faith in the film’s director.

When I reflect more on the film, I can’t think of a single bad performance. To my surprise, Willem Dafoe has a bigger part in the film than what I was expecting, which is probably due to his small screentime in films such as this. He delivers an emotional & intelligent performance that also challenges his character. There’s even a bit that his character does that makes no sense, but you’re still trying to figure it out. There’s of course, Ramy Youssef. I am quite familiar with his show on Hulu and have seen every episode. He’s an incredible actor and I am glad to see him in more such as this one as he delivers a thought-provoking performance. Then, there is Christopher Abbott & Margaret Qualley. They have minimal screentime, but their presence stands out in their second reunion after last year’s Sanctuary. Finally, Jerrod Carmichael is there and makes the most out of it with his small screentime.

It’s not a Lanthimos movie if the technical design is perfect. Under the hands of any other filmmaker, I don’t think this would have worked. Lanthimos continues his signature style of cinematography where images looked closed in and round, almost making it look dreamlike. It’s probably not a film that I’d suggest for someone to be under the influence to, because I could imagine it being overwhelming. It was overwhelming to me to the point of feeling overstimulated. While that sounds like a bad thing, I can appreciate what was done. The camera continuously zooms in and out, the editing can suddenly cut, and the visuals of this alternate world of our own is very overwhelming. What makes it work though is how these technical designs mimic the emotions of the characters, making it feel reasonable to understand where characters are coming from. At this rate, I am sure Lanthimos will only surprise us more with these type of designs.

One aspect of the film that I want to bring up on is how the film presents the sexual activity. It’s an interesting one to say the least, but I think it burned into my brain based on some of the negative reviews I saw. It it always surprising to see polarizing negative reviews amongst a large sum of positive ones. The negative aspect mentioned involves Emma Stone’s character, Bella Baxter, going through a lot of sexual activity. The problem that I have seen people mention is the state of mind she is under that is the problem. If anything, I don’t think Lanthimos is making this a positive thing. With his male perspective, I can see where he make his largely male cast very flawed as to say how males are in general. More importantly, I think the film has a strong case of what grooming looks like while also giving the Baxter character a sense of liberation. My only issue with the film is how much is shown. It gets to the point where I was like, “Okay, I get it.” A good 20 minutes could have been cut and my views of the film would have been far more favorable.

Overall, Poor Things ensures that director Yorgos Lanthimos is one of the most profound filmmakers who understand how to make his films unique enough to balance with the story and the emotions of the characters. Emma Stone proves in her role that she is confident as an actress, showing that this may just very well be her best performance. From the cinematography to the production design to the performances, you are in for a profound and unique journey unlike you’ve ever seen before.

VERDICT: Amazing