Showtimes December 29 - January 4:

7 Golden Globe nominations:
Best Picture, Musical or Comedy / Best Director / Best Screenplay / Best Actress, Musical or Comedy (Emma Stone) / Best Supporting Actor (Willem Dafoe) / Best Supporting Actor (Mark Ruffalo) / Best Score

At its heart, Poor Things is a Frankenstein tale, with the beautiful Bella (Emma Stone) its unlikely monster. Her creator is a surgeon named Godwin (Willem Dafoe), a gnarled, facially scarred recluse who she affectionately calls “God.” Kept cloistered within Godwin’s townhouse where only three people know she exists, Bella is a grown woman who speaks, moves, and reasons like a toddler. But her mind is expanding at an impressive rate, and before long she’s curious about things outside of her four-person household, like sexual partners and traveling the world. Enter Duncan (a riotous, mustachioed Mark Ruffalo), a rakish, hedonistic lawyer who promises to sweep her away to Lisbon and indulge her fantasies. Thus begins a strange and often funny coming-of-age odyssey, through which a rapidly more worldly Bella learns how much there is to being a woman, and how little there is to certain men.

Peppered with a buffet of colorful characters, Poor Things would not be what it is without the virtuosic performance by Emma Stone at its center. Bella is a character who means a great deal to the actress – “I just love her so much,” she told a NY Times reporter, and that feeling is tangible. Indeed, any less brave or brazen a performance would likely sink amid the veritable firework display with which Lanthimos illustrates Bella’s story. His busy, swirling mise-en-scène makes cities like Lisbon, Paris, and Alexandria look as a child might dream them after leafing through a picture book. The artistry in this film – not to mention its unique combination of whimsy and sex positivity – may just land it in a special place in the annals of cinema. For adventurous cinema-goers, this is an awe-striking visual feast that satisfies the eyes, tantalizes the loins, and feeds the soul.

(Ireland, UK, US / 2023 / Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos)
R / 2 hrs 21 mins