Poor Things

So much of the time, commercial films aren't typically quirky or odd, whereas independent films are typically described with these adjectives. Why? Not sure, but suffice it to say, it can make these films interesting. Case in point, "Poor Things"--well directed and acted, and basically well written if one can get past the oddity and sheer debauchery of the story. 

This is an incredible tale and fantastical evolution of Bella Baxter (Emma Stone), a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe). Under Baxter's protection, Bella is eager to learn, so Baxter hires a med student, Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef). Hungry for the worldliness she is lacking, Bella runs off with Baxter's lawyer, Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), slick and debauched, on a whirlwind adventure across the continents. Free from the prejudices of her times, Bella grows steadfast in her purpose to stand for equality and liberation--she just goes about it in some totally bizarre ways. 

Others to round out the cast are Kathryn Hunter as Swiney, Christopher Abbott as Alfie Blessington, Jerrod Carmichael as Harry Astley, Margaret Qualley as Felicity and Vicki Pepperdine as Mrs.Prim. 

This was directed with grit and complexity by Yorgos Lanthimos ("My Best Friend" '01, "Kinetta" '05, "Dogtooth" '09, "Alps" '11, "Venice 70: Future Reloaded" '13, "The Lobster" '15, "The Killing of a Sacred Deer" '17) plus music videos, shorts and a video. The way this filmmaker was able to get his actors to bring their respective characters to life, especially Stone was amazing. Stone's character developed and evolved from this gibberish speaking, mentally challenged infant type slowly toward this articulate, concise and calculating woman questioning everything and everyone, and this is fine directing. It was executed structurally penned well by writer Tony McNamara ("Ashby" '15, "The Favourite" '18, "Cruella" '21) plus TV, based on the novel by Alasdair Gray. Even though this screenplay was written with appropriate structure and sequenced fairly well, it was truly difficult to get to the end of this considering how gratuitously violent and sexual a lot of the content was in this. I understand that for Bella to learn the ways of the world, she must have to be transformed and that trek can get ugly, but this represented so much debauchery that it was definitively well over-the-top.The writer could've shown a lot less gratuitousness in the different scenes and still be able to convey the transformation that the audience needed to see. Once the story was able to sift through all this debauchery, it finalized as a bittersweet ending and one could understand her journey, but the audience doesn't need to be walloped over the head to get to this point. Also, it was a bit long-in-the-tooth--approximately 15 minutes could've been lopped off the running time and still had gotten the point. 

If you like gratuitous films, such as "The Favourite", "The Wolf of Wall Street", "Babylon", and the like, you'll like this, however, if you're not really into gratuitous violence or sexuality, you might want to pass on this. It is rated R for a reason--it probably should've been rated NC-17. It certainly deserved the Oscar nods for acting and directing, but not an easy film to watch. 

Out of 4 Stars: 2.5                                           Rated: R                                       142mins.