Poor Things Parent Guide

Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef) is an eager medical student, and he’s just been given a huge assignment by his teaching surgeon, Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe). He’s going to become Godwin’s research assistant on a secret project he’s been carrying out at home.

The project turns out to be Bella (Emma Stone), a seemingly mentally disabled woman who’s reacquiring her faculties after some sort of injury. Currently, she has the mentality of a three-year-old, but her growth is exponential, and Max is assigned to carefully chart her progress. Bella matures rapidly, although her speech and coordination are still somewhat haphazard, and she soon discovers sex. More importantly, she discovers Baxter’s lascivious lawyer, Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), who plans to spirit her off to Lisbon for a grand affair. Although reluctant to let her go, Baxter agrees that she ought to see the world, and she sets off on an insane voyage of sex, self-discovery, sex, philosophy, and sex.

It’s hard to describe this film, since it’s unlike anything else I’ve seen. Imagine, if you will, playing a different audiobook in each ear (Frankenstein in one, Lolita in the other), while watching some kind of acid-fueled Cirque du Soleil/German Expressionist film orgy. That’ll get you in the neighborhood, but it’s still an imprecise approximation of the experience of watching Poor Things. There’s a fascinating story stewing amidst and amok all the weirdness and graphic nudity, and it’s all beautifully shot as well. You’re just going to see a lot of Emma Stone to get there. And I do mean that literally. Even longtime fans of weird movies may not be prepared for the barrage of lewdness and nudeness in this movie. In case you were on the fence about showing this at the next kids’ slumber party, however, I’ll advise you that there are also frequent sexual expletives, bouts of drinking, and some graphic scenes of autopsy and experimental surgery.

But for all that, I think this is one of the most interesting movies I’ve seen this year, albeit deeply weird and unsettling. It is surprising, unusual, and frequently downright bizarre, but that oblique angle allows the film to tackle complex or abstract themes in new and intriguing ways. Not all art needs to be transgressive (and indeed, I don’t think this art needed to transgress accepted norms quite this much), but I think the film benefits from exploring ideas beyond the reaches of social comfort. It’s just not an easy movie to recommend to…well, most people I know.