Rent Poor Things (2023)

Life of Brain - Poor Things review by CH

Earlier reviews here, as elsewhere, show that this is a film which divides opinion.

And so, I come to this from a different angle (and it is a film which use a fish-eye lens many times). From scene to scene it is engaging, fascinating, outlandish and all the other adjectives which can be applied to this magic-realist take on late-nineteetn-century scientific experiment run riot. And yet, do these cohere into as satisfying a film as it could be?

For all this, it is opulently staged in its various cities and abroard ship, so much so that one might be distracted from the narrative into applauding the scenery - and wondering whether there has been a spraying from the cgi device behind those involved (and the acting is often remarkable). It turns out that these real sets were created for it. As such, the film deserves to be seen on a large screen.

And one should celebrate its success at a time when the multiplexes have been swamped by endless sequences of the Marvel crowd and their ilk.

Small wonder that a first edition of Gray's novel - published three decades ago - commands a fair sum now.

Pretty, but far too long - Poor Things review by DM

The book is ambiguous (we don't know if Bella is really a Frankensteinian creature) and set in the real world. The movie is unambiguous, linear, and set in a steampunk world, or a kind of cosplayers' 19th century, that makes you wonder what is supposed to be fantastic and what people accept as normal. It's quite similar to 1960s "hip" picaresque movies, the only difference being that it's a young woman going through sexual experimentation rather than a young man. You get the point of each sequence long before the director thinks you have. The one point I thought there was a plot twist coming (this is a world in which brains can be transplanted, after all) it fails to happen, probably because the scriptwriter didn't think of it. So: read the novel instead.

Imposture? - Poor Things review by CSF

I hate when people think they re-discover periods like The Avant-Garde or the Absurd. Only geniuses like Peter Greenaway, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Luis Bunnuel could create this style...with style. At least they were not boring.

Or else, it is above my Art station.

A cinematic smorgasbord of delight - Poor Things review by Alphaville

A surreal fantasy beautifully directed, quirkily shot and scored, opulently staged, funny, grotesque, raucous, outrageous and defiantly anti-snowflake (eat you heart out, Barbie), this is a scintillating riposte to the bland TV-fare that often passes for film these days. Weird and wonderful, with outrageous sex scenes and gorgeous set designs of a surreal Lisbon, Paris… all luxuriating in deep-focus detail that makes it a feast for the eye. Just watch it.

Emma Stone gives amazing performance - Poor Things review by AS

This is definitely a movie you will either love or hate. It was the former for me. I loved the design and even the extreme use of 4mm wide angle lenses. It starts out as a Frankenstein-type film in monchrome with many references to the early twentieth-century movies of that ilk.

Later scenes in colour are dazzling with quite surreal cityscape designs.

Emma Stone is given a producer credit, presumably to give her control over the audacious sex scenes. There are laugh out loud moments too.

Boring - Poor Things review by HM

Rather Tim Burton in that an alternative world is created for the characters to move through. Very pretty, but what the heck this story is all about I have no idea. Over my head and I suspect most peoples. What did it tell me about the human condition? Nothing as far as I can tell. A baby's brain is transplanted into a dead woman's skull. Grown up body, but immature mind. So what? Stripped of experience how does an innocent relate to adult reality? That appears to be the premise.

It is overlong and a hard watch frankly.

A steampunk Odyssey which has incredible imagery but a long meandering script. Stone is great though - Poor Things review by TB

Arriving with much fanfare, as well as plaudits aplenty, this Yorgos Lanthimos at his most esoteric & unpredictable. Set in a steampunk-era Victorian London, an experimental surgeon (Defoe,) find the body of a pregnant woman who has committed suicide. He then takes the brain of her baby & implants it into her mother's head, before reanimating her & making her his latest creation à la Frankenstein's monster. However, "Bella" has other ideas as well as a determination to see the outside world for herself, along with her new lover (Ruffalo) in tow.

As much as there was much beautiful imagery, along with a fearlessness & daring by Stone as the lead, after a strong first 3rd, the film then starts to wallow in its own weirdness. The story then becomes something of a preachy parable, with some highly unrealistic scenarios (working in a brothel is shown to overall be an exhilarating & totally safe experience, with no violent punters or threats from the Madame,) before attempting some sort of kumbaya ending, which to me didn't work.

But there was plenty to keep me interested & I absolutely think Stone deserved her multiple award wins, especially considering the amount of films released now which tell basically the same story.