Yes No Maybe So: "Poor Things"
Tuesday, June 13, 2023 at 7:00PM ;)
Vasilis Marmatakis has done it again. Yorgos Lanthimos' preferred poster designer always knocks them out of the park, and his latest creation's no different, hitting that sweet spot between beauty and unease. Poor Things looks impossibly enticing, mixing the lushness of period stylings with bodily discombobulations that hint at the mysteries of Emma Stone's character. She'll be Bella in this adaptation of Alasdair Gray's 1992 novel, a resurrected young woman who pursues personal freedom beyond the will of Dr. Baxter, the scientist who brought her corpse back to life. The original text has been described as funny, cerebral, and dirty, making it sound like the perfect playground for Lanthimos and his particular brand of off-kilter cinema.
Along with this new poster, Searchlight Pictures also released the theatrical trailer for the movie, whose American release is scheduled for September 8th. Considering that date, one wonders if the work might be headed to the Venice Film Festival. While waiting for confirmation, let's delve into the trailer and give it the customary 'Yes No Maybe So' treatment…
YES
- Reading some online reactions to the trailer, one soon finds people making fun of the performers whose goofy register seems at odds with what one traditionally considers good acting. However, I couldn't be happier that Lanthimos is remaining true to his anti-naturalistic ways, continuing to pursue a cinema where reality is repudiated, not only in design but in the interpretative approach too. Even when I've disliked the auteur's pictures – The Killing of a Sacred Deer – his work with actors remains a highlight.
- Speaking of actors, this thing's got one hell of a cast. Emma Stone is the most prominent name, but there's also Willem Dafoe, Mark Ruffalo, Ramy Youssef, and Jerrod Charmichael credited in the trailer, making for a juicy gaggle of men.
- Though she's not named in the trailer, Kathryn Hunter shows up in the video to remind everyone of what a fascinating presence she always is. After the actress' Oscar-worthy work in The Tragedy of Macbeth, I'm glad she keeps pursuing big screen work. Alas, her home will probably always be the stage.
- You have to love such vibrant colors allied to a sense of artificialism that harkens back to past eras of cinema history. Though part of the picture is in black-and-white, the chromatic wildness feels most invigorating. Nice to see a relatively mainstream project be so ready to embrace garish palettes in a panorama where gloomy desaturation is all the rage. Come thru, Robbie Ryan!
- Those chimeric animals are so fun to look at, all disjointed parts and gloriously grotesque. Most covetable movie pets of 2023 or nightmare fuel? You decide. In any case, they're lovely.
- Indeed, the entire trailer sets a spell of willful oddity that feels refreshing in its prickliness and lack of obvious compromise. From wide-angle distortion to comedic beats, it looks like nothing else in theaters right now.
- The closest Hollywood comparison, which some shots in the trailer echo, is Coppola's Dracula. That 1992 project is still polarizing, putting some people off with its outward fakeness and love of archaic technique while delighting others for that reason. I'm part of the latter group, so these vibes feel ideal.
- If nothing else, this apparent twist on the Frankenstein premise makes me eager to read Gray's novel. Just judging from the impressions given by the trailer, it sounds fascinating for its wild concepts alone.
NO
- One fears Lanthimos' iconoclastic streak might be diluting as his budgets grow. Poor Things is the highest-profile project of his career, but one wonders if it wouldn't be better for him to scale down. It seems like the director's not returning to his Greek roots any time soon, and that's rather sad.
- Was Sandy Powell unavailable? Poor Things is the fourth 2023 movie directed by a previous big-name collaborator without the designer's name attached. The others are Todd Haynes' May December, Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon, and Rob Marshall's The Little Mermaid. After The Favourite, I was eager to see Powell and Lanthimos join forces again, but alas – nothing.
- Another unfortunate thing is how little there is of Carmichael in the trailer. He's a curious addition to Lanthimos' cinema, much more so than the other newbies in the cast. Dafoe, in particular, seems made for this auteur's madness.
- Speaking of actors shortchanged from the trailer, where is Margaret Qualley? And what about Christopher Abbott? I hope their performances aren't so small as to be negligible. Their absence doesn't bode well for fans of the pair.
- Someone on Twitter mentioned certain wide shots look like AI-generated art, and I can't unsee it.
MAYBE SO
- Despite all the praise thrown at the trailer's unashamed sense of artifice, there's something off about the images. It's probably the use and abuse of CGI where some more old-fashioned effects would have made sense. Let's hope Poor Things doesn't come off as a chintzy two-hour screensaver. Or, in other words, more Coppola's Dracula and less Tim Burton in the 2010s.
- In the realm of design, Poor Things marks Lanthimos' first collaboration with costumer Holly Waddington. Her most famous work to date is the Victorian Lady Macbeth, whose severity in no way suggested the flights of folly seen in this trailer. There are many period fashion details to appreciate, paired with odd proportions and what looks like a take on 19th-century skorts. I'm excited about the lunacy, even if some of it looks perchance a little ugly.
- There's a significant chance that all these bits of aesthetic unseemliness, not entirely grotesque, are the point. Though one might be beset by doubt, it's safe to assume Lanthimos knows what he's doing, and none of it is accidental. That might not preclude the viewer from rejecting the film on a matter of taste, however, for it's shaping out to be an acquired one.
- Tony McNamara is the screenwriter, and while the little dialogue we get seems solid, it's balancing high on a tightrope. This could all fall apart in feature-length when the punchiness of trailer edits isn't there to help. While he did pen The Favourite with Deborah Davis, the shadow of Cruella looms large, threatening mediocrity.
In conclusion, I'm mostly a YES with some MAYBE SO inclinations. Are you similarly conflicted, maybe more outwardly positive or negative? Please share your thoughts about Poor Things in the comments.
Reader Comments (11)
Goes without saying most definitely a yes.
I'm a big YES but do agree some images in the trailer seem off. I hope it all comes together gloriously
OH HELL YEAH!
I have to admit it didn’t love this trailer… but I’m still very much a YES!
Probably NO.
Stone seems great, but the males actors...
Even though I don't like Dafoe, I admit he's talented.
But the rest... 🤮
Poor Things' is a captivating novel combining humour, fantasy, and social commentary.
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It looks like Wes Anderson's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. I'm a bit unsure about the visuals just from the trailer. So we'll see if it works better in context.
What bugs me the most, hough, is Ruffalo's "ow" line. I just don't buy it.
That said, this is still 100% a YES. Lanthimos is probably the most interesting director working today and there aren't many of those lately that get mainstream attention.
The Killing of a Sacred Deer is his best work by far, IMO. Deliciously perverse.
I don't know. I see pretty much every acclaimed movie, but I'm not a huge Lanthimos fan, and parts of this look like they may not work very well. Like Sad Man, I am bothered by Ruffalo's "ow" line reading (generally Ruffalo these days is a red flag for me, as he's often cast beyond his abilities), and I wonder about Stone's casting, too.
I probably will see it, but it's not high on my list.
I've been eagerly anticipating this ever since I heard about it. Yorgos Lanthimos, Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe -- that plot!
With that said, when I saw the trailer, it wasn't quite what I expected. "Ok, so very stylized..." - my initial reaction.
Then again, with a plot like that, how could I have expected anything at all?
I'm a Yes.
As a lifelong cinema fan, I have largely stopped going due to no other reason than I don't enjoy the majority of the films the industry is releasing. It's all for money. This is giving art. And for that, I'm down to check it out.
This and Barbie can hopefully hold me through the rest of the film year.
yes please - ruffy looks like he's having a ball
I am very excited by this - the Lobster + Stylisation 🤯