SFF Gazette's coverage on Poor Things extends pretty far back to the days when then there wasn't a ton of chatter about the project, even within the deepest of film circles.
We covered the film's announcement that it would premiere at the Venice Film Festival and also the project's decision to delay its release due to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA and WGA Hollywood strikes.
The site also recounted how a pre-filming mistake by Emma Stone went on to have a significant impact on the production and Stone's turn as the Frankenstein-esque Bella Baxter.
Our coverage then shifted to Poor Things securing the highest honor at the Venice Film Festival, the Golden Lion, and how that would serve as the perfect setup for the film's awards season push.
Now, a multitude of reviews are in for Poor Things on the aggregate review site, Rotten Tomatoes, and Poor Things still boasts a 93% approval rating from over 160 reviews. The film has an average score of 4.4 out of 5. The general audience also seems to love the film, giving it an 86% approval rating.
Leonard Matlin had strong praise for the film: "On the face of it, I wouldn’t have bet that I would take to Yorgos Lanthimos’s latest film, but I am crazy about Poor Things. No other film in recent memory can match it for sheer ingenuity, both in terms of storytelling and visual execution."
RogerEbert.com in their review, called it Yorgos Lanthimos' best film to date. High praise considering some of his past offerings: "It can be hysterically funny and incredibly disturbing, sometimes in the same beat, and it’s the most visually accomplished film that Lanthimos has made."
The Hollywood Reporter also zeroed in on Stone's performance: "Wildly flamboyant yet directed with unerring control, it’s also a story rich in contemporary currency, about a woman rebuilding herself from scratch, strictly according to her own rules, which provides Stone with the role of a lifetime."
Variety commented upon the fact that although Lanthimos has secured bigger budgets than some of his earlier project, his usual, harsh directorial style is still on display: "Oddly moving in its fervor and abundance, Poor Things may appear a far cry from the harsh, stripped ascetism of an early work like Dogtooth. But they’re actually similar animals, fixated on taking people apart to find what makes them tick, what makes them swoon, what makes them interesting."
The question now will be not if but how many awards will Poor Things take home, come awards season.
As previously mentioned in our reporting, Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster) are reuniting after their work on The Favourite, which won several awards at the 75th Venice International Film Festival, 72nd BAFTA Awards, Golden Globes, and 91st Academy Awards in 2018.
Poor Things is a surrealist science fantasy comedy-drama film directed by Yorgos Lanthimos from a screenplay by Tony McNamara (Cruella). The film is based on a 1992 novel of the same name, written by Alasdair Gray.
Recently, Poor Things had its domestic theatrical release delayed from September 8 to December 8, 2023, due to the SAG-AFTRA strike and the guild rules that prohibit actors from promoting their films. It's thought that Searchlight Pictures would like to make an awards season push for the film, which would obviously be hampered by this limitation.
Poor Things Official Synopsis: From filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos and producer Emma Stone comes the incredible tale and fantastical evolution of Bella Baxter (Stone), a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe).
Under Baxter’s protection, Bella is eager to learn. Hungry for the worldliness she is lacking, Bella runs off with Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), a slick and debauched lawyer, on a whirlwind adventure across the continents. Free from the prejudices of her times, Bella grows steadfast in her purpose to stand for equality and liberation.