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Poor Things, 2023
Bella (Emma Stone) is a Frankenstein-like creature brought to life by eccentric scientist Godwin (Willem Dafoe). Searching for a sense of self, she is lured away from home by the lecherous Duncan (Mark Ruffalo), but Bella’s strong personality soon leads her on a variety of misadventures.
A frustratingly limited worldview turns strong cinematic elements into narrative weaksauce.
I’ve avoided writing this review for literally months because this movie just fundamentally annoyed me in a way that makes me not even really want to talk about it. I love talking about movies I love, I love talking about movies I hate, and I adore talking about movies that feel like they were on the cusp of greatness. But this? All I can imagine is that people who liked it will want to (politely, I’m sure) rebut what I’m saying about it and I’m exhausted already.
To start by stating the obvious, Emma Stone is an incredible actress and she has an irresistible knack for physical comedy and a killer line delivery. Willem Dafoe brings his signature oddness to the role of Bella’s father/creator. Mark Ruffalo, as a man driven mad by a woman being more sexually liberated than he is, is funny and over-the-top and he makes his character’s suffering absolutely delectable.
The costuming and set design all makes a big impact. I didn’t like the fake look of the world in this film, but it was well-made.
But fundamentally, at its heart, this movie seems to be about a brand of rich white woman “feminism” that I found borderline repulsive. In the framing of this film, sexual repression is the worst thing about being a woman. And, ladies, if you just shake that patriarchy off, you can totally be happy! Just have sex with whoever you want! If your possessive partner doesn’t like it, don’t worry! It’s not like women are ever the victims of violence at the hands of their boyfriends/lovers. Also, great news, you can venture off on your own and never have to worry about sexual assault.
I know what you’re thinking: what if I don’t have enough cash? Well great news again: if you’re, like, enlightened about sex, then sex work is just a whimsical, sometimes even boring job that you can do to rake in cash. Violence? Pregnancy? Sexually transmitted infections? Incarceration? With a plucky attitude, none of these things will ever be a problem!
Now, are there women out there living in poverty experiencing violence, sexual assault, repression, and so on? Of course there are. So make sure to take, like, 3 minutes to look down on them from your cruise ship before making an ultimately ineffectual monetary gesture and then never think about them again. After all, they’re just anonymous poor people. And we can’t take a second more of screentime to worry about them when we could be enjoying yet another sex scene.
But here’s a question: should I feel uncomfortable watching someone have sex with a child? I guess so. But fortunately we put her in an adult woman’s body, so that we can enjoy looking at the child naked, watch the child have sex with adult men, and even get the giggles when the child does kinky sex work. Still feeling uncomfortable? Don’t worry: we’ll have her show a range of developmental stages all mushed together. Is she 6? 16? 26? No one knows, and so no one can PROVE she’s just a little kid, even though she lacks basic grammar skills. Having plausible deniability about the age of the person whose naked body you’re looking at is a real lifesaver.
So yeah, not a fan.
Also, how do you get an actor like Christopher Abbott and totally squander him? Criminal.
Poor Things, 2023
Bella (Emma Stone) is a Frankenstein-like creature brought to life by eccentric scientist Godwin (Willem Dafoe). Searching for a sense of self, she is lured away from home by the lecherous Duncan (Mark Ruffalo), but Bella’s strong personality soon leads her on a variety of misadventures.
A frustratingly limited worldview turns strong cinematic elements into narrative weaksauce.
I’ve avoided writing this review for literally months because this movie just fundamentally annoyed me in a way that makes me not even really want to talk about it. I love talking about movies I love, I love talking about movies I hate, and I adore talking about movies that feel like they were on the cusp of greatness. But this? All I can imagine is that people who liked it will want to (politely, I’m sure) rebut what I’m saying about it and I’m exhausted already.
To start by stating the obvious, Emma Stone is an incredible actress and she has an irresistible knack for physical comedy and a killer line delivery. Willem Dafoe brings his signature oddness to the role of Bella’s father/creator. Mark Ruffalo, as a man driven mad by a woman being more sexually liberated than he is, is funny and over-the-top and he makes his character’s suffering absolutely delectable.
The costuming and set design all makes a big impact. I didn’t like the fake look of the world in this film, but it was well-made.
But fundamentally, at its heart, this movie seems to be about a brand of rich white woman “feminism” that I found borderline repulsive. In the framing of this film, sexual repression is the worst thing about being a woman. And, ladies, if you just shake that patriarchy off, you can totally be happy! Just have sex with whoever you want! If your possessive partner doesn’t like it, don’t worry! It’s not like women are ever the victims of violence at the hands of their boyfriends/lovers. Also, great news, you can venture off on your own and never have to worry about sexual assault.
I know what you’re thinking: what if I don’t have enough cash? Well great news again: if you’re, like, enlightened about sex, then sex work is just a whimsical, sometimes even boring job that you can do to rake in cash. Violence? Pregnancy? Sexually transmitted infections? Incarceration? With a plucky attitude, none of these things will ever be a problem!
Now, are there women out there living in poverty experiencing violence, sexual assault, repression, and so on? Of course there are. So make sure to take, like, 3 minutes to look down on them from your cruise ship before making an ultimately ineffectual monetary gesture and then never think about them again. After all, they’re just anonymous poor people. And we can’t take a second more of screentime to worry about them when we could be enjoying yet another sex scene.
But here’s a question: should I feel uncomfortable watching someone have sex with a child? I guess so. But fortunately we put her in an adult woman’s body, so that we can enjoy looking at the child naked, watch the child have sex with adult men, and even get the giggles when the child does kinky sex work. Still feeling uncomfortable? Don’t worry: we’ll have her show a range of developmental stages all mushed together. Is she 6? 16? 26? No one knows, and so no one can PROVE she’s just a little kid, even though she lacks basic grammar skills. Having plausible deniability about the age of the person whose naked body you’re looking at is a real lifesaver.
So yeah, not a fan.
Also, how do you get an actor like Christopher Abbott and totally squander him? Criminal.