Films for Breakfast

Ever since Dogtooth back in 2009, Yorgos Lanthimos has proven himself to be one of the most versatile and singular directors in the game. On a technical level, all of his films are so perfected and unique in the way they look and move; but the most impressive aspect about Lanthimos as a filmmaker, to me, is his ability to craft the strangest of stories and turn in truly staggering, effective results. The Lobster is a film that, in the hands of most other filmmakers, would completely fall apart before it even began – but Lanthimos found a middle ground in the sandbox of that narrative to create a film that was equal parts darkly hilarious and strangely romantic and melancholic. Over the years, he’s grown admirably as a filmmaker with the exquisite craft and terrifying tension of The Killing of a Sacred Deer, or The Favouritewhich proved that his films can be both accessible to a larger audience while being as hilarious and shocking as his other works. 

However, it’s with Poor Things that I believe Lanthimos has truly made his masterpiece – a stunning portrait of humanity, evolution, sexuality, etc. Emma Stone stars as Bella Baxter, a woman who has been brought back to life by an unorthodox scientist named Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe) as she embarks on a whirlwind adventure across the continents searching for freedom. Throughout this journey, she learns about equality and liberation as well as the beauty of sexuality, education, and art. It’s throughout this adventure that Poor Things truly shines within its elaborate production design, immaculate cinematography, and its insanely stacked and talented cast at hand. All of this blends together for a film that pulls off what feels like an incredible balancing act of tones and themes to absolute perfection. 

One can’t talk about Poor Things without first praising Emma Stone’s performance. Stone, at the age of 35, has already had quite an incredible career with several different performances that I’d consider to be among the best of all-time; especially that of La La Landwhich is equal parts charming and heartbreaking. But when it comes to Poor Things, it truly feels like Stone has delivered what might be the performance of a lifetime – there’s a true brilliance to how she conveys Bella’s evolution as a human being, from her starting with childlike wonder and immaturity to eventually longing for connection and meaning among the people, it’s simply a staggering and sprawling performance that blew me away. She is simply on another level as she can balance both the dramatic chops as well as completely lean-in to the absurdist aspects of the film to such insane degrees. 

The entire supporting cast is equally impressive, with performers such as Jerrod Carmichael, Christopher Abbott, Ramy Youssef, and especially Willem Dafoe all turn in fantastic performances that nail the wacky tone that Lanthimos is striving for but manage to also find humanity underneath it all. However, the biggest highlight of the supporting cast is easily Mark Ruffalo, who delivers quite possibly one of the funniest and most surprising performances I’ve seen in my entire life. His pure energy and charisma in each and every frame is remarkable; he takes already hilarious dialogue and tees it up to even more hilarious and absurd levels. Every sequence that Ruffalo shares with Stone is absolute dynamite, and it may just be his best performance he’s ever given. 

When a film is as wacky and colorful as Poor Things, it feels like an impossible feat for it to actually accomplish having deeper themes that you can latch onto amidst the lunacy and zaniness. But Yorgos Lanthimos manages to find that perfect middleground of this story – where he doesn’t compromise the identity of his filmmaking or what makes this story so unique at the expense of feeling more accessible to the general audiences. He simply finds a rhythm for the film quite early on, and brilliantly laces in its compelling themes and character drama throughout for a completely effective and staggering third act that gloriously pays it all off. In every sense of the word, I found Poor Things to be utterly remarkable; it feels like an impossible film that is bound to not work at every turn. Yet with every ambitious step it takes, it just made me fall even deeper in love with it. 

5/5