Film Society Series: Poor Things
Sex, satire and steampunk collide in this fantastical feminist twist on the Frankenstein story, starring Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo and Willem Dafoe.
Sex, satire and steampunk collide in this fantastical feminist twist on the Frankenstein story, starring Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo and Willem Dafoe.
Director Yorgos Lanthimos reunites with The Favourite star Emma Stone for this funny, furious, proudly feminist take on the Frankenstein story, in which a young woman named Bella is raised from the dead by a Victorian-era scientist (Willem Dafoe). Her brain is the equivalent of an infant's, which means she must relearn language, motor skills and manners. Then a mustachioed cad (Mark Ruffalo) educates this neo-naïf in the ways of carnal knowledge, at which point Bella discovers the joys of sex, the hypocritical sexism of 19th-century polite society and, eventually, how to liberate herself from the shackles of the past and the present. Both a sharp, witty throwback to the pilgrim's-progress satires of yesteryear and a scathing revision of the Prometheus myth, Poor Things features a no-holds-barred performance from Stone as a woman who goes from victim to avenging angel.
Closed Captioned.