‘Poor Little Things’ Review: Emma Stone Has Sex with an Apple, a Cucumber, Mark Ruffalo and More!

Perhaps we should get this out of the way early: yes, there is a lot of nudity and sex in the film. Poor things, the latest film from Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos. Emma Stone naked! naked!! naked!!! And she writhes and writhes and squeals in many of the scenes in this thing that is sure to delight some and shock others. However, these moments are integral to the story as the film thinks about more than just lust, but their inclusion won’t hurt when trying to sell tickets – just as I’m sure that first paragraph will help with reeling in a few clicks from search engines. (Hello, perverts!) However, the depraved quality of this picture cannot be easily overlooked.

Based on the 1993 novel by Alasdair Gray, it is Lanthimos’ fourth English-language feature film after Favorite, The Killing of a Sacred Deer And Lobster. They were all inherently crazy, but Poor thingsThe film’s purpose of exploring social conditioning is more in line with his early Greek films. Alps And Fangboth of which wonder what human behavior would look like if all concepts of normality were put into a blender and then left buried in the yard to ferment.

Poor things Set in a steampunk Victorian-era alternate reality (with some Fauvist excesses mixed with modernism), it follows Willem Dafoe’s mad scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter and his greatest experiment. He fished a pregnant woman (Stone) out of the river who had just tried to commit suicide, but she is not 100% dead yet. He revives her, digs up her brains and replaces them with the mind of her unborn fetus. It sounds diabolical, but over time you will somehow understand how Godwin – in short, just God – can be kind at times.

The woman who has recently become Frankenstein, Bella, is initially just a series of impulses. She urinates on the floor, screaming “wee!” and dizzyingly stabs the corpse in the eye, shouting: “Squish! Squish! Baxter’s student Max (Rami Youssef), tasked with chronicling her development, quickly dispenses with the “R-insults” but also adds that she is beautiful.

Gradually, Bella’s mental abilities grow, as does her desire to leave Dr. Baxter’s closed London house. (This portion of the film is shot in black and white and often uses disorienting fish-eye lenses.) Her desire to see the world around her leads to self-exploration and several funny scenes involving masturbation. (“Bella is happy when she wants to be!” she exclaims, eager to show off her new trick.)

Dr. Baxter decides to marry Bella to Max, but a call from slippery lawyer Duncan (Mark Ruffalo) leads to trouble. He seduces her and takes her to Lisbon, where they indulge in their passions (fornication And Pastéis de Belem!) against the backdrop of bright colorful paintings reminiscent of the outside world Beetle juice.

Pros:

• Emma Stone jumps for fences in a revealing (and more) performance
• Funny social satire, but also thought-provoking?
• Crazy dance scene

Minuses:

• Not exactly subtle!
• Some may disagree with the superficial approach to issues of sex and gender, forgetting that this is not a documentary or a sermon, but a film.

At first, Ruffalo’s gruff Duncan seems only interested in Bella for a quick romp, but because she’s so annoying, he finds himself (oh no!) falling in love. She doesn’t have that kind of interest in him; he just one element

in a world that is extremely fascinating. (Though he does serve his purpose with what she calls “furious jumping” and some other colorful language.) Soon they both find themselves on a steamship where something terrible happens, at least for Duncan; Bella starts reading.

As her intelligence grows, so does her independence. Poor things a shift from an absurdist view of pure animal instinct to an iconoclastic attack on social norms. The action soon moves to Paris, where Bella becomes self-sufficient, working in a well-furnished and pleasant-looking brothel. The final act returns to London and really brings home the idea of ​​misogyny. Duncan is a villain, but he’s basically just a jerk. Much darker forces, such as the aristocratic general played by Christopher Abbott, project all the world’s problems into one clear place: the independent woman’s clitoris.

While the film does take a superficial look at some issues (sex worker rights can still be supported without presenting an overly rosy view of the practice), it’s hard to get too annoyed by the film’s presentism. First of all, it doesn’t take place in the real world, and more importantly, it’s funny as hell.

Much of this is due to Tony McNamara’s script, which revels in playful language as Bella’s syntax develops, as well as a minefield of expletives that explode when least expected. Stone’s huge performance – an avalanche of crazy heists and strange movements that gradually become more human – is the most entertaining, but everyone is shining from some other planet and having a great time.

The whole thing is about half an hour too long for my liking (it’s 141 minutes long), but I think once you’ve assembled all those elaborate sets you’ll really want to show them off. I’m also curious how some interpret this film – from a male director, a male screenwriter and a male author – about a woman’s natural right to nonsense

her path to self-realization. But I made a personal decision to stay away from it!

Like last year Everything everywhere and at onceI feel comfortable calling this a lock for Oscar nominations across the board. The film is wild, but not. too much wild and plays very well with the crowd. And as in Favorite And Fangthere’s one hell of a dance scene. 7.8/10

In theaters: December 8

Who’s in itStars: Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Mark Ruffalo, Ramy Youssef, Christopher Abbott, Jerrod Carmichael

Who is behind this: Yorgos Lanthimos (director), Tony McNamara (writer), Alasdair Gray (writer)

For lovers: Bold social satire

Avoid if: You become uncomfortable with lust on film