Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2023)
The best I can say about Yorgos Lanthimos latest film is that millions of people, like myself, fall in love with storytelling, and can spend our entire lives chasing the thing that Poor Things is, without ever grabbing hold of it. It is the rarest of things to see artists be able to harness it and convey it to an audience. It's clear, in this case, that achievement doesn't just belong to Lanthimos, but to Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe, and Rami Yousef, as well as writers Tony McNamara and Alastair Gray, with important contributions from Jerrod Carmichael and Christopher Abbot. People who fall in love with storytelling, whatever medium they may choose to work in, dream of creating something of the quality of Poor Things
Poor Things is a beautiful film of world class storytelling. It is suffused with love, desire, wonder, lust, cruelty, sadism, and the profane. Through all of it, there is a warmth that is never cloying, never tawdry, bending to the saccharine in an attempt to dull it's more cutting edges, it is clear eyed and courageous in its steadfast hold on the warmth and compassion its perspective wraps all of its characters in. It's hopeful, without asking the audience to be naive or engage in willful ignorance. It is that extremely rare piece of work which is equally mature and honest, while managing to be warm and have some degree of whimsy.
Emma Stone has a handful of beloved performances behind her already. At 35, she's put together an impressive body of work. Easy A was well received by critics and audiences, and has developed something resembling a cult following. She was nominated for Supporting Actress Oscars for both The Favourite and Birdman. She scored a win for Lead Actress for La La Land. She's also currently starring in The Curse with Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie, garnering no shortage of praise for her performance. All of that being true, from here on, Emma Stone's calling card is going to be the character of Bella Baxter in Poor Things. There hasn't been any question about whether or not she's a talented actor, capable of carrying a film on her charisma and winsome presence for some time. This is a different level of performance, altogether.
It doesn't hurt that it's rare for a performer to get the chance to create a character as thoroughly as Stone is given in creating Bella Baxter. With Bella Baxter, Emma Stone proves she deserves to be in any conversation dedicated to the best actors working today. Part of the reason for that is that you can practically feel the collaboration between Lanthimos and Stone in creating this character and putting her on screen. As exacting and thoroughly controlled as Lanthimos vision of the film clearly is, Emma Stone's influence on the character shines through, and is essential to making Bella Baxter one of the best characters of the year, if not the decade.
Yorgos Lanthimos has racked up an impressive career in the time since he first made a splash here in the US with Dogtooth. His films are their own worlds, but that world is usually created through a combination of performance, premise, off center timing and dialog. Here, he's stepping more fully into the fantastical and his exacting eye for detail is in full view. This film is as gorgeous visually as it is thematically and structurally. The sets, costumes, cinematography are a visual banquet. On top of that, every performance is excellent. Willem Dafoe, Christopher Abbot, Mark Ruffalo, these are names which are associated with the ability to deliver outstanding performance in the right film, for the right director, and Lanthimos is very clearly one of those directors. Add to those Jerrod Carmichael and Ramy Yousef, who is aren't as well respected yet, but deliver excellent performances in supporting roles. What separates Poor Things from his other work, as good as those films have been, is this depth of warmth toward the characters, and humanity more generally. Lanthimos previous films have been Kubrickian in the degree of their sense of remove and being rather cold. Like so much of Kubrick's oeuvre, Lanthimos other work has taken a pretty bleak perspective on human beings, our failings, our neuroses and insecurities. Poor Things feels much more neutral, but not in a way that is anywhere near as cold. It manages that incredibly hard trick of being both neutral and warm, at the same time.
Until a few hours ago, I'd have said Godzilla Minus One was my favorite of the new films I'd seen in 2023. I was effusive in my praise of that film. As of now, that claim belongs to Poor Things, and it's not really even close.
Story is always about a character's journey. This is a story where the evolution of the character isn't part of the story, it is the story, and it's told through writing, directing and performances which make it compelling, entertaining and emotionally substantial. It's a story about self creation, driven by curiosity and the zeal to experience life and wonder, and it is as beautiful in this as the visual presentation is. By cribbing bits from Frankenstein, Lanthimos and company get to take some of the more interesting ideas of that novel into new directions and new territory. Where it diverges most sharply is that this isn't about a character yearning for the love and recognition of a father or creator, and lashing out at that father figure's inability to provide it. This is a character refusing to be defined by their surroundings or the other characters trying to foist definition on them. The central character in Poor Things doesn't begrudge those around them for their failings, but looks at them with clear eyes, and is simply unwilling to accept when those failings impinge on her ability to follow her own compass and muse.
Poor Things is one of those excellent examples of how insightful and moving great storytelling can be.