As the famous saying goes, there are three certainties in life - death, taxes, and that if Yorgos Lanthimos is making a movie, then it will be one of the weirdest things you’ll see all year. But even by our man Lanthimos’ exceptionally strange standards, Poor Things – the oddball auteur’s upcoming Frankenstein-ian fantasy about a young woman who finds herself reanimated with a toddler’s brain – looks properly batshit. And if you don’t believe us, just take a look at the latest trailer for the film and see for yourself. Cue Emma Stone threatening to punch a baby in 3, 2, 1…
See? We told you it was weird! But it’s also, as star, producer, and bona fide Lanthimos muse Emma Stone is quick to assure us in this teaser, “very, very funny.” Inspired by Scotsman Alasdair Grey’s eponymous 1992 novel, and adapted by The Favourite scribe Tony McNamara, Poor Things centres around Bella Baxter (Stone), a dead woman reanimated by unorthodox yet brilliant scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe - who went to actual mortician school in preparation for the film). “This is Bella. She’s an experiment,” says Baxter as we glimpse his subject, wired up to the kind of retro-futuristic contraption that’d make James Whale beam. But Bella’s more than merely a science project. “She’s understanding what it means to be a member of society,” explains Stone, who speaks directly to camera in the trailer. “And the more autonomous she becomes, the more challenged these men seem to be by it.”
Elsewhere in the trailer, chuckles abound as we see Bella shack up with louche-looking lawyer Duncan Wedderburn (a moustachioed Mark Ruffalo), discovering the joys of sex, crotch-kicking, sipping cocktails, and… err... pledging to punch bairns as she travels across Lanthimos’ delightfully weird, very Karel Zeman and Terry Gilliam reminiscent world. Even in a minute-long teaser however, it’s clear to see how Poor Things is satirically jabbing at and interrogating archaic gender roles and social norms, something alluded to in the film’s official synopsis; “Free from the prejudices of her times, Bella grows steadfast in her purpose to stand for equality and liberation.”
Joining Bella on her odyssey of self-discovery are an excellent ensemble, including Jerrod Carmichael, Christopher Abbott, Margaret Qualley, and Kathryn Hunter. Poor Things? Sounds like lots and lots of good things if you ask us!
Poor Things releases in cinemas on 8 December in the US, ahead of a UK release on 12 January, 2024.