UPDATE: As expected, all raves — Screen International, IndieWire, The Guardian, The Telegraph, Vulture, BBC, Deadline, THR, The Independent, Variety
EARLIER: We were wondering if Yorgos Lanthimos’ Searchlight-produced “Poor Things” might make a dent at Venice, and that it has.
Lanthimos seems to have delivered big time with the 141-minute “Poor Things.” What I’m hearing out of Venice is astonishment at what he’s created here, some are saying it’s a Golden Lion contender. The review embargo won’t lift for another couple of hours, but here’s an early reaction I got from a top-tier journalist writing for a trade:
“As a hater of Lanthimos’ movies, this is pretty damn close to being a masterpiece. I’m shocked by how Lanthimos has managed to make such a shocking and emotionally resonant movie. I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets an NC-17 rating.”
“The sex scenes are outrageous and Emma Stone will be getting tons of raves for what is such a fearlessly bold performance on her part. Willem Dafoe is also a scene stealer, he’s MANIC. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie like this one before. The moral of the story is that maybe Lanthimos should start adapting other people’s material.”
At this afternoon’s press conference, Lanthimos praised his star Emma Stone, saying she had to “have no shame about her body, nudity, engaging in those [sex] scenes for the film — she understood that right away.” He also added, “Why is there no sex in movies?”
Lanthimos is the director behind “The Favorite,” “Dogtooth,” “The Lobster” and “The Killing of A Sacred Deer.” What’s interesting to note is that “Poor Things” was supposed to be released theatrically on September 8th before being delayed to December due to the ongoing SAG strike.
“Poor Things”, said to be a twisted riff on ‘Frankenstein,’ tackles the evolution of Bella Baxter (Emma Stone), a young woman brought back to life by 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.
Nobody expected a 55-year-old NC-17 movie to be one of the surprise box office stories of the fall. Yet here we are, and this absolutely puts a smile on my face.