Poor Us!

Movie Review: “Poor Things,” Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, 141 minutes

My movie buddy had to drag me away from the lobby outside the entrance to “Poor Things.” I wanted to stay and warn everybody to stay away. It’s over 2 hours of pretentious nonsense about a baby girl growing within a woman’s body. It’s a misogynist fantasy wasting $35 million worth of the latest technology, technique, and style.

There! Now I know you won’t be able to resist going. I saw a couple of outright rave reviews before I started mine. I found a major reviewer who calls “Poor Things” “best movie of the year.” https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/poor-things-movie-review-2023. Another joins in praising its technical accomplishments, both in film and in storytelling: https://www.vox.com/culture/23992608/poor-things-review. Reviewers, apparently, loved it.

The movie really does have a lot going for it. Everything about it is quirky and over-the-top. Mark Ruffalo, as a Casanova cad, is hilarious, especially in the scene where the child/woman enthusiastically dances jerkily in the middle of a prim ballroom dance and Ruffalo tries to cover for her with impromptu twirls and dips. I could cut that 4 minute scene out and watch it every now and then, but not anything else.

On the way home, my movie buddy analyzed the title. “Poor Things” doesn’t refer to anybody in the movie. It’s the audience, us.

–genelantz