Poor Things

"Poor Things" directed by Yorgos Lanthimos is definitely a bold and interesting original film. Probably the most unique film to be released this year and provided a surprising watch, I often found myself laughing out loud more than I had thought I would've. The film showcases personal transformation and finding one's self through rapid growth and character development with Bella (Emma Stone). As we see her transition from being told where to go and what to do, to ultimately deciding her own path. Emma Stone displayed one of her greatest performances to date and heavily carried this film on her shoulders. The supporting ensemble was outstanding as well with Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe, and Christopher Abbott all giving exceptional performances. Beautiful cinematography, set design, costume design and makeup were very unique and help elevate this bizarre and over the top piece of cinema to be one of the best films of the year.

I very much enjoyed Poor Things and the performances done by Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo and Willem Dafoe. I was absolutely taken by the surrealistic set design and even psychological interaction depiction between the doctor and his patient Bella. A complicated and fanciful character is Bella inhabiting the resurrected body of her mother via a brain transplant. Oh my such medical technology. It's a good thing that's not possible yet today. Bella was gifted a free experience as she became conscious of the world and herself by her brilliant surgeon father a vocation as it turns out would become her lifetime vocation. The story continued on briefly after her father's death and an extensive excursion through life, relationships, and time. Generally speaking storyline, cinematography, set design, location, interactive character development we're all done to perfection. I've only touched on it a microscopic portion of the scope of this film. So much to enjoy here this little paragraph doesn't even begin to do it justice.

This is a very unusual movie. I enjoyed watching it, even though it felt awkward at times (as promised by the creators and many reviewers). In my opinion, many users who gave it a 1/10, missed the point. For sure, it is a movie for very mature and sophisticated audiences. It contains a lot of ugly truths about the world, so don't watch it if those bother you. (Don't watch it with teenagers, either, wait until they are 20 or 21.) I appreciated the creative direction, cinematography, and Emma Stone's acting talent. The plot covers multiple aspects of privilege and abuse in thought-provoking ways. On a very high level, you could say that it has some similarities to Barbie, but a very different approach. It is almost the anti-Barbie. The contrast between these two 2023 movies is definitely worth a class discussion in some graduate course of film criticism.

This isn't an easy film to watch and capture everything it tries to convey, on the contrary, it's quite complex.

I'm not a deep connoisseur of Freud, on the contrary, I studied some of his texts when I went to journalism school, but I remember very little, I'm actually unfamiliar with the subject, but clearly "Poor Things" seems to me to work with some points of psychosexual development human developed by Freud.

I may be talking nonsense, but it seems to me that the sexual phases of children described by Freud (oral, anal, genital, etc.) are shown in Bella's development during the projection, as well as her total independence and freedom in relation to the world and in the passage of each of those phases, without being repressed, allowing her to reach the superego.

While working with complex concepts of the development of the human psyche, the film also flirts wonderfully with the frustrations of love, and social, political and human issues, and I honestly couldn't capture everything the work was offering me, a lot of details must have escaped my attention.

So much content, so much complexity, inserted in a spectacular, wonderful cinematography, with exuberant sets, elaborated down to the smallest details, with perfect use of vivid colors and black and white, actors shining on the screen, all of them without exception, incredible direction, and a soundtrack very strange that fits like a glove.

I rate it 8 out of 10 because my ignorance really didn't allow me to capture everything that was being offered to me, and at some moments I felt a little tired from demanding so much of my brain, but it's a great film in all aspects. It's just not for everyone, as it's not what you would call popcorn entertainment cinema, on the contrary, it's the opposite, and perhaps the trailer could mislead certain types of audiences.

Clearly a lot of people enjoyed this grotesque movie, but it wasn't for me. Some of the scenes in it made me feel sick, and maybe they were supposed to, but it seemed unnecessary. Don't even get me started on how pretentious the movie was.

I also found this movie very frustrating because the acting was good, the sets and costuming were good, and some scenes used striking cinematography. These things all made me feel like I should've liked the movie, but I don't. It could have been put to much better use.

The sex and nudity is beyond gratuitous. I'm usually not bothered by sex scenes in movies, but for this particular film it felt perverted. Maybe the director has a weird fetish.

Ultimately, this film made me want to crack my own head open and pour bleach over my brain. It's one of those movies I'd like to block out. I don't think I'll ever watch anything else by Lanthimos.