Poor Things (2023)
| director: | Yorgos Lanthimos |
| release-year: | 2023 |
| genres: | fantasy, horror, comedy |
| countries: | Ireland, UK, USA |
| languages: | English |
In this young adult coming-of-age story, a bunch of rich people reenact the tale of Frankenstein in a romance-era horny retro-future.
Willem Defoe's weird face isn't weird enough, so they make it extra weird, which is nice. He makes for a joyously convincing mad scientist. In reference to his favorite noise rock blues throwback band, he dedicates his life to producing Chicken Dogs.
Emma Stone's weird face isn't weird enough, so they make everything about her extra weird, which is nice. She hobbles around straight-legged for most of the film because monsters don't bend at the knee.
Mark Ruffalo is completely forgiven for his previous missteps in All The Light We Cannot See. Poor Things is surely the highlight of his career so far, in which he plays a slick-talkin', selfish, unethical, womanizing lawyer driven to the brink of madness when roundly trumped in matters of sexual perversion.
Ramy Youssef is a bit bland, but fine. He's just a hook to hang the plot on.
Jerrod Carmichael's acting didn't seem to fit in, but maybe that was intentional, since nothing quite fits in. He has great style, at least. He serves as another plot hook, triggering the monster's transition from child-like naïve optimism into the dark depths of rebellious adolescence.
The set design is just absolutely fucking killer at all times, and the unconventional cinematography – namely shooting half of the film in drastically distorted wide-angle – is somehow fittingly glorious and never grows old. Some lovely painted transition scenes, too.
The first quarter is filmed in black-and-white, but it breaks out into vibrant color as Emma breaks out of her metaphorical London prison for a trip across a whimsically reinterpreted Europe.
It has a very theatrical style, both in sets and acting. At one point, Ruffalo falls over and leaves his feet kicked up in an awkward angle in a wonderful stage show style.
It's nice to see Yorgos evolving from the nearly-good level of The Lobster into pure brilliance. You hardly even notice it's 2.5 hours long.
