For me, this is cinema. Poor Things is a glorious metaphor of a film that explores true awareness. Emma Stone’s character finds herself in true consciousness in the Garden of Eden as she starts exploring the world as a woman for the first time. Emma Stone relishes in the role, that is surely another career defining performance. Her turn in La La Land that awarded her her first Oscar was thought to be the pinnacle, but there was to be a Bella Baxter shaped peak towering above that.
Bella Baxter is personified through Emma Stone as an adult with the cognitive function of an infant – literally. When events conspire to lead her to a realisation that she is more use to the world than an experiment, she at first learns the delights in short lived human pleasures with an eerie childlike innocence. As she steps past the threshold of this new world however, she wrestles with complex feelings that are so alien to her two dimensional view of the world. True consciousness manifests in her awe and horror at being privy to the full spectrum of the human experience.
The men around her meanwhile drive themselves silly with worry; worries about her, worries on her behalf, and of course worries about themselves and what role she has in their own lives. The film soars, I believe, because it’s source material of a novel of the same name is so beautiful and timeless that the film benefits from a swathe of literary concepts that elevate the film to another level.
A mark of a true film is in how many questions it asks rather than the answers it gives. It’s perpetually perplexing how many people made a fuss about the Barbie movie and it’s female empowerment stance, but Poor Things is an entertaining, yet deeply complex portrayal of a woman’s world view. Completely unadorned and unperturbed by the historical quashing of individuality through societal norms, Bella Baxter is conscious. And so is the cinema surrounding her. There are reams of compliments to be laid at Yorgos Lanthimos’s feet for his style and vision, executed phenomenally by cinematographer Robbie Ryan.
Yorgos Lanthimos is on a stunning roll at he moment, his daring creative choices are like nothing the audience has ever seen. This has a real chance at scooping the top prize at the Academy Awards, and if not, has a great chance in directing, acting and screenplay categories. Either way it is likely to be a big winner this year.
Poor Things was directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, Production Companies: Film4, Element Pictures, TSG Entertainment, with Distribution by Searchlight
Poor Things is nominated for 11 Academy Awards. Find showtimes near you here: https://www.searchlightpictures.com/poor-things/
FILM FOR THOUGHT 