![]() ![]() Perhaps he does not know any.” And when she tires of his jealousy, she blithely dismisses him en route to a socialist meeting: “We are our own means of production. I do not know why he does not give advice to women. So at my request, it was,” she says with a shrug.Īs her language skills improve, she finds her way to philosophy. Ruffalo’s character gnashes his teeth after learning Bella’s slept with someone else, and she looks at him, confused: “I had the heat that needed release. ![]() It’s tragic that freedom from shame and patriarchy is such fantasy terrain, but it’s also a hoot to watch. (The film’s based on a 1992 novel by Alasdair Gray, whose anarchic spirit has apparently been somewhat toned down for the film.)īella is the total embodiment of a conservative nightmare: A woman who has absolutely no interest in, or requirement for, subscribing to traditional notions of what women can do and not do. Shame, and the lack of it, is at the heart of “Poor Things,” which, through its various titled chapters, follows Bella as she evolves from a carnal, monosyllabic, lurching Id into a voracious reader and budding socialist. Stone herself has commented on this weird dichotomy, in a quote that sounds like something that might come from her “Poor Things” character in her later, more articulate phase: “The culture of America and its relationship to violence is really fascinating, that it would be so prudish around sexuality, something that’s a part of a natural human experience and the way that people literally are created and born-that’s shameful, for some reason, but the way they die is not,” she told The Atlantic. But what I find shocking is how much more attention this film’s amorous content gets than the rivers of blood and nonstop violence that make up so many other mainstream films (I have yet to see any movie critic complain about the nonstop gun violence in “John Wick,” for example).Įmma Stone stars as Bella Baxter, a mad scientist's creation, who’s living entirely outside the confines of patriarchal morals. Sure, some scenes are graphic - there’s full-frontal nudity and plenty of simulated sex. Much of the press coverage and social media discussion of the film, beginning with its celebrated release at the 80 th Venice International Film Festival this September, has revolved around all the sex: Bella, an entirely shame-free character, romps through Europe with a variety of men, chief among them Mark Ruffalo in a hilarious performance as Duncan Wedderburn, a slick yet dopey lawyer who’s good in bed. ![]() But as her brain develops at “an accelerated rate” in this fantasy, she discovers masturbation, and a whole new world opens up. She joins Dafoe’s character in his laboratory and amuses herself by stabbing a corpse’s eyes with a scalpel (“squish, squish!”). Upon meeting her creator’s medical student, Bella smacks him in the nose and laughs with delight at the sight of blood. The early, “Bride of Frankenstein”-esque chapter may admittedly be a little rough going for the squeamish viewer. Director Lanthimos ( “The Lobster,” “The Favourite”) explores what it looks like when a woman exists in so-called polite society while giving zero f–ks. The movie couldn’t be a more perfect end-of-year counterpart to the one that dominated a good chunk of this year, Greta Gerwig’s “ Barbie.” (CNN and the distributor of “Barbie” share a parent company, Warner Brothers Discovery.) As much as I loved that near-perfect confection of a film, “Poor Things” dares to go places that “Barbie” didn’t or couldn’t (especially with Barbie manufacturer Mattel as a producer).
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