Rent Poor Things (2023)

Life of Brain - Poor Things review by CH

Earlier reviews here, as elsewhere, show that this is a film which divides opinion.

And so, I come to this from a different angle (and it is a film which use a fish-eye lens many times). From scene to scene it is engaging, fascinating, outlandish and all the other adjectives which can be applied to this magic-realist take on late-nineteetn-century scientific experiment run riot. And yet, do these cohere into as satisfying a film as it could be?

For all this, it is opulently staged in its various cities and abroard ship, so much so that one might be distracted from the narrative into applauding the scenery - and wondering whether there has been a spraying from the cgi device behind those involved (and the acting is often remarkable). It turns out that these real sets were created for it. As such, the film deserves to be seen on a large screen.

And one should celebrate its success at a time when the multiplexes have been swamped by endless sequences of the Marvel crowd and their ilk.

Small wonder that a first edition of Gray's novel - published three decades ago - commands a fair sum now.

Just awful - bloated, pretentious, pointless nonsense - Poor Things review by PV

I almost turned this off after half an hour - and wish I had.

WHY on earth did it win awards? One can almost smell the massive budget on this massive bloated mess of a movie, which seems a real vanity project, set in some imagined past present steampunk age.

I hated it. Really.

And as for the Oscar winning Emma Stone - well I think the academy were voting for the STRONG-AND-INDEPENDENT-WOMAN character.

As someone who understands infant language acquisition, and linguistics and syntax, I can say whoever wrote this gets it ALL wrong. Really.

Just dross, like the same director';s awful THE LOBSTER too.

and NOT original at all - watch or read FRANKENSTEIN. or maybe read a Czech novel published 18 years before HG Wells The Time Machine called EINSTEIN'S BRAIN in which the scientists brain is transplanted into a dead soldier on a battlefield who then travels through time.

I am just baffled why anyone admires or enjoys pretentious dross like this. When I think how hard it is for people to get basic funding for a decent film, or get a novel published, while boring, pointless drivel like this wallows in ponds of riches. I give up.

A cinematic smorgasbord of delight - Poor Things review by Alphaville

A surreal fantasy beautifully directed, quirkily shot and scored, opulently staged, funny, grotesque, raucous, outrageous and defiantly anti-snowflake (eat you heart out, Barbie), this is a scintillating riposte to the bland TV-fare that often passes for film these days. Weird and wonderful, with outrageous sex scenes and gorgeous set designs of a surreal Lisbon, Paris… all luxuriating in deep-focus detail that makes it a feast for the eye. Just watch it.