Last year Barbie proclaimed the gynecological revolution in the cinema, this week it’s Poor Things. This article advises against taking doll-loving children to the new science fiction film by Yorgos Lanthimos (The Favourite), but is recommended for all adults.
Poor Things features an amazing Emma Stone in the lead role, whose character is between slit open chests and removed brains discovered her sexuality.
The retro sci-fi film Poor Things features a great Emma Stone
The Barbie comparison is no coincidence. Poor Things is Barbie for adults and continues the story where Margot Robbie’s plastic doll disappears in the credits. Just don’t expect a pink PVC land, but one Journey through a cyber-punk Europe between black and white gothic horror and brightly colored airships.
Poor Things is a retro sci-fi film with its own Victor Frankenstein. His name is Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe). The scarred genius brings corpses to life. Bella Baxter (Emma Stone) is his most successful experiment to date. Godwin transplants a baby’s brain into a dead woman and lo and behold: a new person is born.
Disney
Emma Stone in Poor Things
Bella soon outgrows the good Godwin. The woman, who initially babbles in an infantile manner discovers her body, her sexuality and thus also questions about her identity. When she runs into the sleazy womanizer Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), Bella escapes and takes a trip through Europe.
Disgusting, funny, provocative: What awaits you in Poor Things
Poor Things won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival last year and the film is also considered a favorite at the Oscars. Whether he wins or not – Poor Things is already one of the most unusual and funniest films of the year. Director Yorgos Lanthimos and his team go wild with the over-stylized set design of London, Paris and Lisbon. The bizarre bon mots of Tony McNamara’s (The Favourite) script are in no way inferior to the film’s exterior.
The strange characters and places, the rapid change between autopsies and sex scenes are not provocations for their own sake. Rather, they fit in harmoniously strange bildungsroman a. Bella, like Frankenstein’s monster, is a creature from the future, created from the victims of the past. Risen from the dead, she sees this rigid world full of controlling men with new eyes. And she happily breaks every rule imposed on her contemporaries.
The emancipation of Bella Baxter, and especially Emma Stone, is a must-see.
Poor Things opens in German cinemas on January 18, 2023.
Podcast with more tips: The best films of 2023
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