Poor Things ★★★★

IT’S as if Yorgos Lanthimos saw Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and thought to himself “Yes, but what if she had also been created by Doctor Frankenstein.“

Following The Killing of a Scared Deer, The Lobster and the Oscar-winning The Favourite, the eclectic Greek director has outdone himself with one of the best films of 2023.

Poor Things is a heady and exhilarating mix of almost every genre – horror, comedy, science-fiction, romance, drama and fantasy – sometimes all within the same extraordinary sequences.

The visuals are constantly captivating, production design, costuming and make-up brilliantly realised, with a clever script and a central, brave performance from Emma Stone.

Her lead character is an enigma, a child growing within an already adult body; a girl struggling to control her limbs and learn to speak who becomes a woman with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, both of the world and her place in it.

Along the way she is feted and used by a range of men, including the man who considers her his muse, played with wonderful comic timing by Mark Ruffalo.

It’s a wonderful vision from Lanthimos with visuals that need to be experienced and quick-fire comic and dramatic language that leaps off the page.

Stone is brilliant and supported to the full extent by Ruffalo and Willem Dafoe in one of his best recent performances as the father and creator of the main character.

Sit back and enjoy another gem from this ingenious director.