{"id":84261,"date":"2023-09-03T21:44:15","date_gmt":"2023-09-03T21:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/topmovieandtv.com\/?p=84261"},"modified":"2023-09-03T21:44:15","modified_gmt":"2023-09-03T21:44:15","slug":"venice-film-festival-emma-stone-is-a-bizarro-barbie-in-poor-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/topmovieandtv.com\/movies\/venice-film-festival-emma-stone-is-a-bizarro-barbie-in-poor-things\/","title":{"rendered":"Venice Film Festival: Emma Stone Is a Bizarro Barbie in \u2018Poor Things\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the wild new comedy from Yorgos Lanthimos (\u201cThe Favourite\u201d), Stone plays a sexually questing woman with the mind of an infant.<\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n

By <\/span>Kyle Buchanan<\/span><\/p>\n

Reporting from Venice.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat was I made for?\u201d<\/p>\n

Though that\u2019s a lyric crooned by Billie Eilish during the climax of \u201cBarbie,\u201d it could just as easily be a question asked by Bella Baxter, the protagonist of \u201cPoor Things.\u201d Played by Emma Stone in this new movie from the director Yorgos Lanthimos (\u201cThe Favourite\u201d), Bella\u2019s back story is a doozy: She\u2019s a Frankenstein\u2019s monster of sorts, saved after suicide when she\u2019s discovered by a demented doctor (Willem Dafoe) who replaces her brain with the one of the unborn child growing inside her.<\/p>\n

And you thought Barbie\u2019s creation myth was head-spinning!<\/p>\n

\u201cPoor Things,\u201d which premiered at the Venice Film Festival on Friday, often plays like a wild, art-house remix of Greta Gerwig\u2019s blockbuster doll opus. It, too, is about a sheltered, childlike woman whose quest for knowledge forces her to venture out into the real world, where the complicated politics of gender both appall and fascinate her.<\/p>\n

But this is no family film: As baby-brained Bella starts to come of age, her lack of inhibitions steers her toward sexual situations that had the Venice moviegoer next to me squirming in his seat.<\/p>\n

Based on the book by Alasdair Gray and adapted by Tony McNamara (who co-wrote \u201cThe Favourite\u201d for Lanthimos and Stone), \u201cPoor Things\u201d introduces Bella shortly after her brain-swap surgery, when she\u2019s still under close observation by Dafoe\u2019s Dr. Godwin Baxter, who has given her his last name, and his mild-mannered assistant McCandles (Ramy Youssef). Quite literally a child in a woman\u2019s body, Bella can barely string words together and is given to shocking outbursts. Even gaining control of her limbs is a challenge: Bella lurches through Baxter\u2019s mansion like a zombie dressed in drag, which I suppose she kind of is.<\/p>\n

Still, the two men are each beguiled by her, even though the lovestruck McCandles is intimidated by Bella\u2019s dawning self-awareness and erotic curiosity. That presents an opening for the caddish lawyer Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), who promises to spring her from Baxter\u2019s custody and smuggle her into the real world for a sexual education. But as Bella grows more independent and capable of sophisticated thoughts, all the men who initially spark to her free spirit become increasingly pathetic in their attempts to trap and keep her.<\/p>\n

Some Venice viewers have crowed that Stone\u2019s go-for-broke character arc all but guarantees her a second Oscar, though I\u2019d apply a lot of caveats to that prediction: This is a wild, eccentric movie full of explicit sex and violence, and older academy voters might bounce off \u201cPoor Things\u201d during the first 20 minutes.<\/p>\n

Still, the technical aspects of the film are absolutely worth rewarding. Like \u201cBarbie,\u201d it\u2019s a marvel to look at, though the aesthetic is less \u201cdream house\u201d and more \u201cnaughty pop-up book.\u201d Filmed with more fish-eye lenses than a Missy Elliott music video, it\u2019s creatively costumed, too: Bella\u2019s signature look \u2014 ruffed collar and Elizabethan sleeves on top, inappropriate bloomers on the bottom \u2014 is what you might get if you set a time-traveling Lena Dunham loose in the Renaissance.<\/p>\n

And for moviegoers who found the feminism of \u201cBarbie\u201d to be too introductory, \u201cPoor Things\u201d takes those themes to their R-rated extreme, interrogating gender dynamics and sexuality from nearly every angle (and since this is a Yorgos Lanthimos movie, you know those angles are canted<\/em>). Bella\u2019s quest for enlightenment will push her from plush suites to whorehouses, but the more hard-earned wisdom she accrues, the more the guys in her orbit will be found lacking. Why shouldn\u2019t she try to remake society in her own image? After all, she\u2019s Bella Baxter. They\u2019re just Men.<\/p>\n

Kyle Buchanan<\/span> is a pop culture reporter and serves as The Projectionist, the awards season columnist for The Times. He is the author of “Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road.” More about Kyle Buchanan<\/span><\/p>\n

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In the wild new comedy from Yorgos Lanthimos (\u201cThe Favourite\u201d), Stone plays a sexually questing woman with the mind of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84260,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nVenice Film Festival: Emma Stone Is a Bizarro Barbie in \u2018Poor Things\u2019 - Top Movie and TV<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/topmovieandtv.com\/movies\/venice-film-festival-emma-stone-is-a-bizarro-barbie-in-poor-things\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Venice Film Festival: Emma Stone Is a Bizarro Barbie in \u2018Poor Things\u2019 - Top Movie and TV\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the wild new comedy from Yorgos Lanthimos (\u201cThe Favourite\u201d), Stone plays a sexually questing woman with the mind of [...]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/topmovieandtv.com\/movies\/venice-film-festival-emma-stone-is-a-bizarro-barbie-in-poor-things\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Top Movie and TV\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-09-03T21:44:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/topmovieandtv.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Venice-Film-Festival-Emma-Stone-Is-a-Bizarro-Barbie-in-\u2018Poor-Things.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mark\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/topmovieandtv.com\/movies\/venice-film-festival-emma-stone-is-a-bizarro-barbie-in-poor-things\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/topmovieandtv.com\/movies\/venice-film-festival-emma-stone-is-a-bizarro-barbie-in-poor-things\/\",\"name\":\"Venice Film Festival: Emma Stone Is a Bizarro Barbie in \u2018Poor Things\u2019 - 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