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Poor Things (2023)


Poor Things is a weird and fantasy take, and very loosely based on Frankenstein's Monster.

Yorgos Lanthimos has increased his directorial ability and budget since The Lobster. If you remember how bizarre that film was this is cranking it up even further. He's a modern, non-goth, Tim Burton. There is a fine line between being weird and being weird for the sake of being edge-y. Lanthimos balances that line perfectly. Lanthimos has a writer he loved working with named Tony McNamara as they've worked together on the 2018 film, The Favourite. 

Emma Stone should be and will most likely be nominated for an Oscar for this film. She has to do a lot in the film, from growing up mentally to regressing her motor skills to that of a baby in a full-grown body. Did I mention the film is weird? She works wonderfully next to Mark Ruffalo who plays the charismatic love interest through most of the film even though he's not her true love.

Willem Dafoe also acts in the film as the mad doctor. He has chickens with a dog's head and many odd things in his house. The film reminds you that this is a fantasy every once in a while and does so through Dafoe's Dr. Baxter. The cinematography is not something I talk about generally in these reviews but this film has some spectacular scenes in it. Robbie Ryan is the director of photography and has already been nominated once before where he also worked with Lanthimos on The Favourite.

The film is weird but greatly entertaining and sometimes funny. I only have reservations about the gratuitous amounts of nudity and graphic scenes. That keeps the film from receiving a higher grade from me, resulting in a B+.

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