Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things is weird, magical, beautiful, and full of life. It’s about life, the way we learn, the way we grow, and how our experiences make us the people we are today. But it is weird. Poor Things is Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein meets Richard Linklater’s Boyhood, with Tim Burton thrown in the mix.
Poor Things, on its surface, is a simple story about Bella, a young woman who was brought back to life and raised by Dr. Godwin Baxter. Her sheltered upbringing has left Bella without the preconceived notions of society and prejudices of the world, giving her a unique perspective. However, wanting to experience the world more thoroughly, she runs away with the lecherous Duncan Wedderburn to live and experience life’s many loves, sex, and lessons.
It is a story about the vibrant nature of life. We watch as Bella starts off with the mind of a baby and slowly grows into her own person as the world transforms around her. Poor Things is bold, brash, gleeful, and full of original presentation and ideas. Based on Alasdair Gray’s 1992 novel, the movie takes its viewers to a steampunk, otherworldly Victorian wonderland, and Bella is in the grips of its dark fairy tale. Born as a test subject and a twisted form of love, she longs for freedom and adventure as she embarks on a journey around the world, which leads to encounters with characters who are fascinating, disgusting, loving, and hilarious, or threatened by her independence—longing to control her in their own way. Why should we think and live so freely? How dare she! Instead of fear, she welcomes them and uses them and their experiences, many of them sexual, to craft her understanding of what it means to be alive.
Poor Things is not a simple movie, nor is it easy to explain, but it is damn good. Its strangeness is a welcome feat in an industry that fights against IPs and attention at the box office. It’s erotic but not erotica; it’s over-the-top but never becomes too much to handle. Maybe it’s a mystery determined to answer the meaning of life. Yet it’s also a powerful case study on the determination to live as freely as a man filled with feminism, self-acceptance, and love.
None of its beauty nor its many messages would be possible without the collaboration between Emma Stone and Lanthimos. There’s a language, a bond, and trust shared that’s magical. They are the ying to each other’s yang; they are weird, and we are better people for the movies they give us.
The Koalition attended the New York Film Festival press conference for Poor Things with Lanthimos, Holly Waddington (costume designer), Jerskin Fendrix (composer), James Price, and Shona Heath (production designers) to learn more about the wacky, beautiful film.
Check out the video above.
