You can count on Yorgos Lanthimos, the Greek film-maker behind such strange creations as The Killing of a Scared Deer, The Lobster and The Favourite, to deliver on oddities. Poor Things, the auteur’s adaptation of Alasdair Gray’s 1992 novel, is indeed fabulously weird. A deranged, deliciously surreal bildungsroman and a steampunk fever dream, it’s at once easy to watch and impossible to fully settle into.
Lanthimos has concocted a hypnotic and singular world for Bella Baxter (Emma Stone), the Frankenstein-esque creation by mad scientist Dr Baxter (Willem Defoe, plus garish prosthetic facial scars) in Victorian-era London. Part monochrome, part oversaturated picture book, Poor Things is a visual treat throughout, like a colored engraving come to life. As in The Favourite, Lanthimos makes ample use of a fish-eye lens, barrels into the base functions of the human body and revels in delectable torsions of dialogue.
