The first reactions to Poor Things are hyping the movie as a potential masterpiece. The upcoming movie, which reteams The Favourite director Yorgos Lanthimos and star Emma Stone, is based on the 1992 Alasdair Gray novel of the same name. It’s a Frankenstein-esque tale that follows a young woman named Bella (Stone) who is brought back to life with the brain of her unborn child and seeks to explore the world. The movie’s cast also includes Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe, Ramy Youssef, Christopher Abbott, and Jerrod Carmichael.
Critics and cultural pundits have now shared their first reactions to the movie after its Venice premiere, which took place on September 1, several months before the official Poor Things release date on December 8. Others were able to offer full reviews of the movie, and the majority seem to agree that it is a raunchy, shocking masterpiece, praising every aspect of the movie’s kaleidoscopic construction and Emma Stone’s performance. Check out select reactions below, as well as quotes from select reviews:
Alex B. called the movie “the raunchiest film of the decade” and said, “THE WORLD IS NOT READY.”
Kaleem Aftab described the movie as “the adult version of Barbie,” also calling it “awesome.”
John Bleasdale went even further, describing the movie as “Fanny Hill meets Frankenhooker. Tim Burton with added broken glass.”
Ernest Owens declared that it “looks like Emma Stone is coming for that 2nd Best Actress Oscar.”
Nicholas Barber, BBC:
It’s easy to forgive any film which is as gleefully excessive as this one. Lanthimos may get carried away, but the results are daringly outrageous and often hilarious. He goes too far in his experiments, just as Godwin does. But, as several of the characters argue, if you want to see the best and worst of life, too far is where you have to go.
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian:
Everything in it – every frame, every image, every joke, every performance – gets a gasp of excitement.
Kyle Buchanan, The New York Times:
This is a wild, eccentric movie full of explicit sex and violence, and older academy voters might bounce off “Poor Things” during the first 20 minutes. Still, the technical aspects of the film are absolutely worth rewarding.
Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire:
“Poor Things” is the best film of Lanthimos’ career and already feels like an instant classic, mordantly funny, whimsical and wacky, unprecious and unpretentious, filled with so much to adore that to try and parse it all here feels like a pitiful response to the film’s ambitions.
Is Emma Stone on Her Way to Another Oscar Nomination?
Thanks to these glowing early reactions, Oscar buzz has already begun to swirl around Emma Stone’s lead performance. If she is nominated for Poor Things, it would mark her fourth nomination as an actor. She has previously been nominated in 2015 for Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), in 2017 for La La Land (which earned Stone her first and only win thus far), and in 2019 for The Favourite.
The Favourite already proved that Stone can score a nomination for a sexually charged performance in a Yorgos Lanthimos project. The movie’s release date also places it in a prime position to be a centerpiece of awards season. It’s not too late in the year that awards voters might miss it, but it’s not early enough that they will forget about it by the time they’re asked to submit their potential nominees.
If she does earn a nomination for her performance, Poor Things could end a fallow awards period for the actor. Although she appeared in the Oscar-winning Cruella since her last nomination, her streak of being nominated every two years had long since been broken. While it remains to be seen if the off-kilter movie appeals to the Academy, it gives Stone her best shot at the gold in quite a while.
Key Release Dates
Poor Things
Release Date:2023-09-08
