Poor Things doesn’t deserve to win Best Picture at the Oscars. There, I said it.
The 2023 movie, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and starring Emma Stone alongside Mark Ruffalo and Willem Dafoe, has received a whopping 11 Academy Award nominations this year. Emma is up for Best Leading Actress, while Ruffalo has been nominated for Best Supporting Actor.
Lanthimos could win Achievement in Directing, while the film has also been acknowledged in the Achievement in Film Editing, Cinematography and Music Written for Motion Pictures categories. But it was such a snooze fest that I reckon it should be automatically discounted from these categories – in fear of any future filmmakers trying to replicate it and cramming even more sex in their movies.
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With a run-time of two hours 21 minutes, Poor Things follows the tale of a resurrected Bella Baxter. She’s technically a woman who killed herself by jumping off a ledge, but was rescued by eccentric scientist Dr Godwin Baxter and implanted with the brain of her surviving foetus.
(Image: Searchlight Pictures/Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock)
Yeah, you read that right. Worse is the fact that Godwin, who assumes a fatherly role to the child-like Bella, admits he’s sexually attracted to her but refuses to cross that boundary.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the whole movie is a misogynistic mess. The first half hour or so is shot entirely in black and white – and the film only regains colour when Bella loses her virginity, i.e. is penetrated by a penis. Bear in mind that it’s not her first orgasm, as she’s learned to pleasure herself way before this. Nope, a little woman needs a strong man (and his genitals) for her life to be complete.
It’s not just the misogyny. The film is so overly saturated with sex that sitting in the cinema felt like I’d accidentally walked into a secret Red Light district. Bella and her suitor Duncan Wedderburn romp all over the place, in various inventive positions. Eventually she tires of him, and decides to pursue pleasure with other men.
(Image: Searchlight Pictures)
Henry Cavill said it best – sex scenes are becoming “overused” in movies these days. Cavill admitted on Josh Horowitz’s podcast: “It’s when you have a sense where you’re going, ‘Is this really necessary or is it just people with less clothing on?’
“And that’s when you start to get more uncomfortable, and you’re thinking, ‘There’s not a performance here. There’s not a piece which is going to carry through to the rest of the movie.’”
The problem with Poor Things is that sex is the entire plot of the film. Other than a few realisations crammed hastily into the last few minutes, where Bella discovers her origins, so little else is explored. It’s supposed to be a journey of self-discovery for Bella, working out what money, music, love means… but it seemed mainly an excuse to film people humping all over the place.
(Image: Searchlight Pictures)
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There were some good points; it’s just that they were so neglected they didn’t make much of an impact. The world built in the film is beautifully Victorian steampunk. Hybrid animals stalk around Godwin’s property, and there’s a particularly eerie scene where the head of a hobby horse is attached to a motorised carriage to give the impression it’s pulled by real horses.
The costume design, too, is spectacular, and designer Holly Waddington put a lot of thought into the development of Bella’s babyish, diaper-style outfits before delving into more adult sets. It deserves a shot at the Achievement in Costume Design and Make-up and Hairstyling awards.
The Production Design team are also nominated for an Oscar. Shot through a fish-eye lens and detailing an incredibly colourful, bizarre world – at least after Bella’s loss of virginity – again, the team, comprised of James Price, Shona Heath and Zsuzsa Mihalek, deserve it.
But if Poor Things wins Best Picture, I’m boycotting the Oscars next year.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
