The movie Poor Things is another strange, yet intriguing release by talented director Yorgos Lanthimos, best known for his horror film The Killing of a Sacred Deer, and romantic comedy, The Lobster. Throughout his distinct filmography, he has garnered numerous accolades and various Academy Award nominations, and Poor Things is no exception. 

Poor Things first hit theaters on December 8, 2023, and ever since, has gotten amazing reviews from movie fans, hitting an 8.4 on IMDb and an impressive 93% on Rotten Tomatoes. While this alone does not indicate the movie’s success, they have received various nominations, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for the protagonist Bella Baxter, played by Emma Stone. 

Throughout the film, Stone fully embodies the role of the protagonist, Bella Baxter. In our first encounter with Baxter, she is mentally a complete child; innocent, curious, and immature. Although physically, she appears as a full-grown adult. Stone does an extraordinary job representing this and helps bring Bella’s character to life. 

Oftentimes movies tend to falter in making an outstanding opening sequence, but Lanthimos seemed to pull this off perfectly, making the opening scene to this movie one to remember all throughout the film as we’re initially met with a woman jumping off a cliff, which we later come to find out is Bella. 

Bella is the product of an experiment in which her creator/father figure, Dr. Godwin Baxter, played by William Dafoe, took her corpse and reanimated it, replacing it with that of the unborn fetus she was carrying at the time. This film can be seen as a gender-swapped twist on the well-known story of Frankenstein. Although what makes Poor Things so distinct from Frankenstein is Bella’s journey to her own independence and femininity. 

This movie is one of a kind, especially with it being a dark-fantasy comedy. The movie’s aesthetic completely makes this rare mix of movie genres truly come to life. It seems as if we’re  viewing things from Bella’s own perspective. When she was stuck in her home with Dr. Godwin we were met with a black and white, almost vintage, color. But once Bella embarks on her journey to self-discovery, we are greeted with colorful, almost dreamlike hues. Cinematographer Robbie Ryan truly does an excellent job in conveying this message to fans. 

Poor Things mixes architecture and fashion from the Victorian era but makes the setting look futuristic with the flying trains, mutant animals, and the incorporation of steampunk technology.  It truly makes the movie seem like a thrilling fever dream and was wholeheartedly one of my favorite attributes of the movie, it gave a sense of its distinction making it unlike any other movie I’ve seen. This movie also excels when it comes to the soundtrack. The use of woodwind instruments gives certain scenes in the movie a spooky and eerie feel.

The main message of this movie is breaking free from societal constraints and one’s personal transformation. Bella matured throughout her journey by learning more about the world and moving from barely understanding basic English to completely learning the anatomy of the human body. 

While I do believe that Bella’s journey to her own sexual discovery was executed correctly, I personally did not enjoy watching the amount of sex scenes this movie had to offer (it is rated R). I understood going into the movie that this was going to be an issue especially with it being rated R and we got a glimpse of a sex scene in the trailer. But I did not expect it to have as much as it did (probably 15-30 minutes of sex scenes in total). According to Stone, on BBC Radio, she believed it was needed in order to highlight her character’s growth because sex is a huge part of Bella’s experience and growth as it is for most people in life. 

If you enjoy watching dark-fantasies that are not short of comedy, I highly recommend giving Poor Things a watch. This movie was so strange, yet so interesting that it made it hard to stop watching. Putting the abundance of sex scenes aside, I give this movie a near-perfect 9.5/10. This movie was undoubtedly one of my favorites, if not my absolute favorite, of 2023.