With the new year only a few weeks old, "the first must-see film of 2024" has arrived, said Matthew Bond in The Mail on Sunday. "You may come out of 'Poor Things' thinking it's just way too weird, that it's a tad too long, but my goodness you'll want to have seen it."
Set in an "art-deco-meets-steampunk London", and directed by the Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos ("The Favourite"), it stars Emma Stone as Bella, a young woman who tries to take her own life while she is pregnant. A celebrated surgeon, Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe), then revives her by transplanting her baby's brain into her head, leaving her with the body of a woman but a toddler's mentality.
As Bella's mind matures, she discovers sex (or "furious jumping", as she calls it), and soon seizes the opportunity to go on a sex-filled adventure with Baxter's caddish lawyer (Mark Ruffalo).
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"What ensues is a peripatetic, episodic and often very funny" tale, in a film that is surely Lanthimos's "masterpiece". Loosely based on Alasdair Gray's cult novel, the film looks ravishing, said Deborah Ross in The Spectator: the sets are "fantastically outlandish and Gaudí-esque" and the costumes "sensational". And though it flags towards the end, it's mostly "marvellously entertaining". You'll not "be able to take your eyes off Stone", who is brilliant as Bella in "each stage of her development, from a child taking her first steps to a grown woman who won't be pushed around".
It does unfortunately become rather "monotonal, flat and dull" as it goes along, agreed Manohla Dargis in The New York Times. Its design might be "rich", but its ideas are "thin". "Poor Things" certainly "won't be everyone's cup of tea", said Brian Viner in the Daily Mail; but I must say "I loved it".
A "wildly imaginative, irrepressibly mischievous, exhilarating roller-coaster of a movie", it's perhaps best described as a "feminist voyage of discovery in the form of a gothic horror-comedy". Some people might find it "challenging, even insufferable", but if you ask me, "it's a proper tour de force, already certain to be the most singular film of the year".
Sign up to The Week's Arts & Life newsletter for more reviews and recommendations.
-
The six-seven meme that has taken over the worldIn the Spotlight With roots in rap and basketball, the phrase has young people obsessed, and it could be here to stay
-
Five takeaways from Plaid Cymru’s historic Caerphilly by-election winThe Explainer The ‘big beasts’ were ‘humbled’ but there was disappointment for second-placed Reform too
-
A journey through Trinidad’s wild heartThe Week Recommends Experience the island’s natural wonders, from watching baby turtles hatch to visiting an ancient bat cave
-
6 well-crafted log homesFeature Featuring a floor-to-ceiling rock fireplace in Montana and a Tulikivi stove in New York
-
Dry skin, begone! 8 products to keep your skin supple while traveling.The Week Recommends Say goodbye to dry and hello to hydration
-
Film reviews: A House of Dynamite, After the Hunt, and It Was Just an AccidentFeature A nuclear missile bears down on a U.S. city, a sexual misconduct allegation rocks an elite university campus, and a victim of government terror pursues vengeance
-
Book reviews: ‘Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife’ and ‘Make Me Commissioner: I Know What’s Wrong With Baseball and How to Fix It’Feature Gertrude Stein’s untold story and Jane Leavy’s playbook on how to save baseball
-
Rachel Ruysch: Nature Into ArtFeature Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, through Dec. 7
-
Music reviews: Olivia Dean, Madi Diaz, and Hannah FrancesFeature “The Art of Loving,” “Fatal Optimist,” and “Nested in Tangles”
-
Gilbert King’s 6 favorite books about the search for justiceFeature The journalist recommends works by Bryan Stevenson, David Grann, and more
-
5 of the best kid-friendly scary moviesThe Week Recommends Hardcore horror is for grown-ups only, but light scares can be startling fun for the whole family
