Poor Things (2024)

A new Yorgos Lanthimos release has almost become event cinema, and there's arguably no-one working today who produces such outrageously genre defying black comedy. His last film, 2018's The Favourite, bagged Olivia Colman an Oscar and you'd be hard pressed to suggest that Emma Stone won't soon be following in those footsteps for her fantastic turn here as Bella Baxter. Bella begins the film as a child like woman, barely able to speak or understand anything of adult diction and we learn she is an experiment created by Willem Dafoe's Dr. Godwin Baxter. Without giving anything away, it becomes apparent she began life with a child's brain in a woman's body, but Lanthimos's film (although a subversive spin on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein [1818]) almost defies its own Sci-Fi themes as it quickly becomes the most foul mouthed self made female tale of recent cinematic history. As Bella's knowledge grows, as does her curiosity about the outside world into which she's eventually initiated with the help of Mark Ruffalo's Duncan (a truly brilliant comic turn) who takes her away from her fiancé Max (Ramy Youssef) to see the world and to put it bluntly, shag as much as possible. Based on Alasdair Gray's 1992 novel and adapted by Tony McNamara (who also worked on The Favourite), Lanthimos attacks the story with relish throwing us into a gothic like world that at times is reminiscent of Guillermo del Toro's work (most notably Crimson Peak [2015]). The set design is astonishing, and Lanthimos shows us truly mad visions of Paris, Lisbon and London to name but a few as Bella tears her way through the world with hilarious consequences. She sets out to achieve her dream of changing the world for good in her own ways; like leaving her fiancé with the promise she'll return, working as a prostitute in a Paris brothel, the usual things; and there's a H.R Giger phallic like quality to much of the scenery, adding to the debauchery of proceedings. These sequences are frequently shot through fisheye lenses by Lanthimos that gives a whole new viewing experience of the madness but works extremely effectively alongside the frenetic pacing of the film, with the colour also changing from black and white to colour once Bella leaves the confines of Dr. Godwin Baxter's (or 'God' as Bella calls him) home, yet still finds ways to shift palettes from location to location. There is a huge amount of nudity and sex, something that Lanthimos has never shied away from both in comedic (The Lobster [2015]) and disturbing fashion (Dogtooth [2009]), and it's amusing here to a point- Stone throws herself into the scenes with admirable gusto- but there is perhaps a question of how many depraved sexual encounters we need to see in the brothel, however amusing some of them are. The whole thing is complimented by a brilliantly demented score by Jerskin Fendrix that is all over the place with almost unbearably high string arrangements at times, and becomes more of a mainstay the more intelligent and knowing Bella becomes. Stone herself is remarkable, producing a physical display of mastery and comedic gold with straight faced innocence whilst delivering lines that come from a place of simplicity; but this almost does Bella a disservice, despite taking things at face value she questions everything that simply doesn't make sense to her and as she does so becomes closer to her goal of happiness both for her and those around her. Lanthimos delivers once more on his astonishing ability to weave laugh out loud comedy through debauchery and madness with a script as sharp as knives, helped hugely by a string of excellent performances, most notably Stone and Ruffalo. Although perhaps not my personal favourite of his work, Poor Things might very well be his most impressive. 8.2/10