Poor Things (2023)
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Screenwriter: Tony McNamara
Starring: Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe, Ramy Youssef, Christopher Abbott, Jarrod Carmichael, Margaret Qualley, Kathryn Hunter, Suzy Bemba, Hanna Schygulla, Vicki Pepperdine
Poor Things, adapted from Alasdair Gray’s acclaimed 1992 novel, stands out as one of Yorgos Lanthimos’ most accessible and emotionally engaging films. Known for the unsettling, often austere tone of titles like Dogtooth and The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Lanthimos retains his distinctive strangeness here while allowing more warmth, broad comedy and genuine pathos to surface. The result is a film that is as uproariously funny as it is touching.
The story centers on Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe), a brilliant but reclusive surgeon who “creates” Bella Baxter (Emma Stone) by reanimating a corpse and endowing her with the mind of a child. Baxter raises Bella in a controlled environment and attempts to teach her about society and manners. Their experiment is disrupted when the rakish lawyer Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo) arrives and whisks Bella away. On the road, Bella experiences an overwhelming flood of sensations — love, sex, food, music and danger — all of which propel her rapid emotional and intellectual awakening.
Lanthimos’ signature stylistic choices are on full display: peculiar framing, deadpan comedy, and surreal touches that make the film’s version of the 19th century feel like a dream. The first act leans into exaggerated visual oddities — fish-eye lenses, grotesque bodily gags, and strange hybrid creatures wandering Baxter’s estate — which establish a deliberately uncanny tone. Viewers who embrace this strangeness will find the film’s later chapters, which shift toward a more magical-realist and emotionally grounded space, richly rewarding.
Visually, the movie draws from Victorian manners and romantic painting as much as it does from early carnival cinema. Sets and backdrops are tactile and theatrical, often feeling hand-crafted with painted projections that evoke a modern Georges Méliès sensibility. Each segment of Bella’s journey is presented as a distinct chapter, using unique color palettes and varied cinematographic approaches by director of photography Robbie Ryan. This chapter structure helps map Bella’s transformation as she travels across Europe and confronts different social environments.
The film cleverly inverts elements of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein myth. Instead of the creator being a charismatic genius and the creation a monstrosity, Lanthimos gives us a disfigured, isolated “mad scientist” and an exquisitely alive, curious heroine. Willem Dafoe brings gravitas to Dr. Baxter, while Mark Ruffalo is deliciously roguish as Wedderburn. But it is Emma Stone who anchors the film: she delivers a fearless, fully realized performance that blends innocence, ferocity, humor and heartbreak. Stone captures Bella’s simultaneous naivety and burgeoning autonomy, making her one of the most compelling screen characters of recent years.
Thematically, Poor Things interrogates control and power, recurring concerns throughout Lanthimos’ work. Who gets to shape another person’s life? How do power dynamics change when education, desire and self-awareness shift the balance? Duncan Wedderburn initially presents himself as a liberator, dismissing social conventions, but his behavior becomes increasingly controlling and possessive when Bella refuses to conform to his expectations. Even supposedly benevolent figures, like Dr. Baxter and Bella’s fiancé Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef), reflect different forms of paternalism and social constraint.
Sexual awakening is central to Bella’s arc. From awkward, comedic early scenes to candid, joyfully explicit encounters, the film treats sex as a freeing, affirmative force rather than something shameful. Lanthimos stages these moments with a frank, sex-positive eye: they feel celebratory and human, not exploitative. Bella’s choices — including the practical decision to sell her body in Paris to support herself — are presented as pragmatic and autonomous rather than degrading.
Poor Things is a bold, subversive comic fantasy that skewers 19th-century sexual politics while spotlighting issues that remain relevant today: bodily autonomy, gendered expectations, and the persistence of patriarchal control. The film’s combination of surreal humor, visual inventiveness and emotional clarity makes it a standout in Lanthimos’ filmography and a powerful celebration of curiosity and self-determination. Bella Baxter is precisely the kind of irreverent, resilient protagonist we need — someone who refuses to be contained and insists on living fully on her own terms.
Score: 23/24
Rating: ★★★★★