Ciao Bella! 5 Reasons You NEED to See Poor Things
Surreal and hilarious, ‘Poor Things’ could be the most spectacular - and empowering - film of 2023. Here’s five reasons to see Emma Stone’s bold comic fantasy.
good.film
a year ago
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1. It’s a Powerful Statement on Female Autonomy.
It’s not easy to nutshell the 4 x Oscar winning fantasy comic-drama Poor Things. Magazine Rolling Stone had a crack, asking, “What if Emma Stone was Frankenstein but Feminist and Horny?” and following up with: “Imagine My Fair Lady’s Eliza Doolittle if she ditched Professor Henry Higgins and went on a multi-continent sexual rampage.”
Intrigued yet? You might be cancelling plans to show your Mum after reading that, but you shouldn’t. Because five-time Oscar nominee Yorgos Lanthimos has brought a staggering and wondrous fourth-wave manifesto to the screen. One that, according to some critics, “could stand next to Barbie as 2023’s double bill of feminist black comedy.”
Bella Baxter is no ordinary 19th-century woman. Pregnant and depressed, she flings herself from London Bridge to end her life, and she succeeds… kind of. Her body is rescued by kindly physician Dr. Godwin Baxter (he’s quite literally “God”) but her brain is dead. So he does what any scalpel-wielding innovator would do: inserts her unborn child’s brain in its place.
The result is an adult woman who drinks in the wonder of her world anew: language, social mores, food, drink and finally – sex. As Bella’s physicality and intelligence matures, she embarks on global fever-dream of discovery: swiftly rejecting society’s boundaries for women, and becoming a bold proto-feminist crusader. It’s a magical and truly clever ride.
2. It’s Emma Stone’s Career Best Performance.
It’s tough to overstate the creative (and professional) risk Emma Stone took when she stepped into the shoes of Bella Baxter. Having worked with Lanthimos on 2018’s The Favourite, Stone was already in sync with the idiosyncratic Greek filmmaker’s style – but Poor Things demanded much more.
First, the pair are fearless about the overt sexuality of the role. "It was very important for me to not be prudish, because that would completely betray the main character”, Lanthimos explained at the Venice Film Festival, where Poor Things won the Golden Lion for Best Film. “We had to be confident Emma had no shame about her body, nudity, engaging in those scenes – and she understood that right away.”
Second, she absolutely nails Bella’s complicated arc: over the film, she matures all the way from a reanimated cadaver with a literal infant’s brain to a fully-aware, stoic and empowered woman. Can you even begin to imagine how to pull that off – or how awkwardly bad it could’ve been in less capable hands?
Lastly, she’s hilarious in the role, harking back to her attention-grabbing early movies like Superbad and Easy A. You’ll alternate between gasping at her more audacious lines and cheering for the ones where she advocates for herself fiercely. In short? Stone absolutely crushes, turning the trickiest of material into one of the all-time great comic performances - and claiming her second Best Actress Oscar for her troubles.
3. It’s Spectacular to Look At.
You may not know the names Shona Heath, James Price or Holly Waddington, but your eyeballs will be in love with their astonishing (and Oscar-winning) work on Poor Things’ production design and costumes.
Kicking off in an 1890s Victorian style, the design palette of the film explodes in a surreal mix of candy-pink skies, steampunk cruise ships and Hieronymus Bosch-inspired French bordellos. Bella’s bold adventures take her from London to Egypt, Portugal and Paris, and the craftspeople didn’t hold back. Rumour has it the Lisbon set was so expansive, it took nearly half an hour to walk around the entire stage.
“Yorgos encouraged every extremity,” says co-production designer Shona Heath. “He wanted something he hadn’t seen before.” Heath and her collaborator James Price took him at his word. The film is almost impossibly inventive; the images we’ve chosen here barely do the artisans justice for just how unique the visuals are.
Along with Waddington’s incredible costume design – and all captured in stunning detail thanks to Robbie Ryan’s flamboyant camerawork – all we can say is, if eye candy’s your thing then you’re in for a feast. As Price admits, “We did 10 years worth of work in one movie, creatively.”
4. It’s Seriously Funny.
Just because Poor Things is unapologetically bizarre doesn’t mean it can’t tickle our LOL bones. Critic Jeff York described it as “jaw-droppingly gonzo from the first frame to the last, easily the most outrageous film of the year… and for my money, the funniest.”
The setup of Bella constantly learning (just in case you missed it earlier, she has the brain of a literal baby) means she says and does the most outrageous stuff because she’s never been imprinted with the social codes of the day. It’s wish-fulfilment freedom of the kind that, unless you’re George Costanza, you or we can only dream of.
At an upper-crust restaurant, Bella shocks her companions when she spits her food out in disgust, right onto her plate. “Why keep it in my mouth if it is revolting?” she rhetorically asks. When a nearby infant won’t stop crying, she announces “I must go punch that baby” before having it explained to her that baby-punching just isn’t the done thing.
Then there’s the knowing winks (Mark Ruffalo’s caddish lover, doing his best Brando, screaming “Bellaaaaa!” up at the balcony) and the outright WTF moments, like Dr. Godwin’s bubble-belches that float in the air a la cartoon treats from Wonka’s factory, and his bonkers animal “creations” that parade around the mansion, fused with heads from other beasts. Trust us, you’ll never look at bulldogs or geese the same way again.
5. It’s Totally Unique.
If the above points haven’t convinced you, take it from us: you won’t see a more original film than Poor Things anytime soon. Critics have summed up the film as “wildly imaginative… a bizarre, brilliant tour de force”, while TIME Magazine called it a “clear-eyed commentary on the ways in which women are often limited and controlled.”
What’s truly impressive is director Yorgos Lanthimos’ fusion of both of those factors: the style AND the substance. Plenty of films can look pretty, but feel empty; the visuals are delightful wrapping paper on a gift box with nothing inside. Poor Things couldn’t be further from that: it’s a zesty, gutsy statement on liberation that made us drool, gasp, laugh and cheer.
"Bella goes through her life without shame, discovering what she feels she needs intuitively,” Lanthimos told TIME in a recent interview. “It is an act of bravery to make your own path – and this woman goes out into the world and experiences it on her own terms." We can only agree, but we’d add our own urging: bravely hit play on that remote and experience Poor Things for yourself.
