‘Poor Things’ is the best film of 2023
Yorgos Lanthimos’ latest and greatest cinematic oddity refigures the Frankenstein mythology to hilarious, sexy effect- along with some of the year’s best filmmaking
The Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos has spent the last few years making some of the weirdest movies in the world, like Dogtooth, The Lobster, and The Killing of a Sacred Deer. These are movies in which characters speak strangely and behave more strangely.
Back in 2018, Lanthimos made his most accessible movie to date, The Favourite and even that was a lesbian love triangle between Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz, and Emma Stone.
Now, Lanthimos has reunited with Stone on a new film, which is about as sexy as The Favourite but way, way weirder, adding on lots of delicious satire about gender politics. It all adds up to the best film Lanthimos has made to date- and the best film of 2023.
Poor Things is set in the Victorian era and is very much inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and its numerous cinematic adaptations, although it’s based on a novel by Alasdair Gray. It’s distributed by Searchlight Pictures, one of many top films this year that feels a lot like an A24 picture, even though it isn’t one.
The film begins with a black-and-white segment, depicting what appears to be a science experiment: Disfigured mad scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe) has created a female Frankenstein’s Monster named Bella (Stone), who moves strangely and has a limited vocabulary.
Godwin’s student, Max (Ramy Youssef) takes a liking to Bella, but she soon runs off with an arrogant lawyer (Duncan Wedderburn), at which point the film leaves Baxter’s estate and switches to color.
The film’s visual style is a sight to behold. Lanthimos and cinematographer Robbie Ryan use fisheye lenses at various points to create a sense of foreboding and weirdness. But once the film goes to color, the shot compositions are among the best of any movie this year.
Poor Things has several distinct locations, from the doctor’s lab to his estate to a cruise ship to a re-creation of Victorian Paris, that are all rendered beautiful.
The genius of the story is that as the film goes on, Bella essentially speed-runs the female experience- and gets smarter and smarter, scene by scene. In the first act, she’s speaking in odd cadences and saying things like “Let us touch each other’s genital pieces.” By the end, she’s speaking French and outsmarting every other character.
Despite coming from a director (Lanthimos) and a screenwriter (Tony McNamara) who are both male, it’s one of the year’s most purely feminist films. It’s also full of lines — “She grabbed my hairy business!,” Seize working yourself immediately!” "I must go punch that baby!” sex referred to as “furious jumping” — that are bound to become instant catchphrases.
Emma Stone was Oscar-nominated for The Favourite, two years after her win for La La Land, but her performance here is better than both of those. She essentially plays Bella as several different characters, and does it all flawlessly.
As for Ruffalo, this is also the best he’s ever been, played a lothario who gets humiliated repeatedly. Poor Things also has a half-dozen outstanding supporting performances, from Dafoe, Youssef, Christopher Abbott, Kathryn Hunter, and the German actress Hanna Schygulla, a veteran of Fassbinder’s films.
Lanthimos’ films in the past have sometimes left me cold, but he brings everything together perfectly in Poor Things, the strongest movie of a strong year.
Poor Things arrives in some theaters on December 8, with a wide release starting December 22.