What "Poor Things" Means For Feminist Flicks

This month, I finally got around to screening “Poor Things.” All I can say is: I wish I had watched it earlier.

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Poor Things snuck into U.S theaters last December, with a domestic opening of nearly $700,000. Later in January, it was released in other international locations, like the United Kingdom and Ireland. It has since grossed to about $34.6 Million domestically. 

While Poor Things was delayed due to the SAG-AFTRA Strike, its release came just in time for the 96th Academy Awards: the film ended up with four Oscars, including Best Actress (Emma Stone) and Best Production Design. 

Yorgos Lanthimos’s Poor Things left me in a state of shock. It has got to be one of the most beautiful pieces of art that I have had the pleasure of viewing in quite some time. While this isn’t a general consensus to all who take a look at the flick, if you are able to get past the initial peculiarity of Bella Baxter’s world, you can become engrossed in the story of a woman engaging with society and learning to think for herself. 

It is absolutely refreshing not just in the uniqueness of its story, but in the way the story is showcased for the audience. It makes sense that Poor Things won the oscar for both Production and Costume Design, because its world is completely nuanced, its colors and costumes as strange and beautiful as Bella herself. 

The film takes place in a victorian-esque world, where Bella Baxter (Emma Stone) is navigating the world for the first time…yes, the first…as she is a woman brought back to life - in a strange manner, nonetheless - by an outlandish scientist. 

As Bella grows in maturity, so does her curiosity about the world and her place in it. The scientist (Willem DaFoe), whom Bella refers to as “God” (which is short for his real name, Godwin) takes in a man as his apprentice to further study the anomaly of Bella. Over time, however, it is also revealed that the two men wish to keep Bella inside for further studies and personal preferences - a possible metaphor for the desire to restrict women’s ambition. 

Bella begins to learn more about herself, including the value of self-pleasure in sexual manners. When an opportunity presents itself to leave her home behind and venture off with an erotic lawyer, she takes it, changing the momentum of the story to a whirlwind adventure across the globe. 

What I think is the most compelling part of Poor Things is not that it is a take on Frankenstein or that it features loads of sex and nudity, but rather that there is a purely sensational development of femininity and self-worth depicted in the character that is our Bella Baxter. 

Bella begins as an infant taking her first steps around hardwood flooring to a pulchritudinous free spirit of a woman who knows her worth and won’t let anyone tell her any different. I am amazed by Emma Stone’s performance in this - while I am well-acquainted with her brilliance, from Easy A to Spiderman to La La land, she gave us a raw, fresh character to mesmerize over for two hours. 

In addition to Stone’s energy she brings into the role, the cinematography aided from the set design alongside the score is astonishing. Not only is the set quite telegenic and mesmerizing, but it helps give the feel of being immersed in a brand new, and yet at times relatable, steampunk world. 

The sky at times looks like that of cotton candy, meanwhile the waist-level shots of Bella help the audience visualize her point of view in the world. And of course, the film itself begins in black and white, the transition to color symbolizing Bella’s freedom (in a rather humorous manner, might I add). 

Feminism materializes perfectly in Poor Things through Bella Baxter’s examination of the world and its quirks. Most prominently, I draw attention to her dialect with others that lets her desire for liberty and equality illuminate wonderfully - her destruction of Duncan Wedderton when wanting to enrich her mind over “furiously jumping” with him, her innocent attempt at giving money to the people of Alexandria after witnessing their poor conditions, completely disregarding Wedderton’s rules that “more than one” cream cake is too much (and eating as many as she pleases), and, of course, her overall desire to become a doctor like her “father” Godwin. 

More prominently, the story of Bella is a bit different from feminist films we have seen before, which is why I think it is so special. Because of Bella’s upbringing, she is free from the prejudices and norms that plague her society and is able to mature into a free-thinking, book-reading, goal-setting young woman. 

Many female-led films follow a sort of “Heroine’s Journey,” a model developed by Maureen Murdock in response to Joseph Campbell’s misogynistic Hero’s Journey that features man as the ultimate hero. However, in Murdock’s version, the woman is still bound to traits defined as “feminine” and “masculine” - in fact, the female must become masculine to achieve her goals, before then realizing that she can have a balance of both sides in her conclusion. 

But, in Bella Baxter’s story, she’s never known what really is “feminine” or “masculine.” She never needs to. Bella navigates the world on her terms, accomplishing her goals and growing to be a strong independent woman without the guidance of a man and without identifying parts of herself as any more or less female. 

And so as Bella walks through her adventures rather independently despite her company, we watch her end up to be a woman us girls dream to be: strong, fierce, ambitious, and…kind. The importance of kindness is sprinkled in at the very end, as it is revealed that she was not the same unbigoted, curious woman in her past life. 

Poor Things is all about innocence, discovery, and human nature. It makes us question how we view society and behavior, and the reasons behind societal norms or why we impose them on one another. And for this reason, I wholeheartedly believe that Poor Things offers one of the best opportunities to truly think about the world as we know it, and the way in which we navigate it. Lanthimos’s story leads us to this line of thinking in a manner that is unapologetically and uniquely its own, giving it a refreshing look.

 If you can get past a Frankenstein-esque world with dog’s and duck’s body parts intertwined, and maybe a few shots of Stone’s boobies, you’re bound to fall in love with Bella Baxter and the world that is Poor Things in no time.