Bella Baxter, the absurd, Frankenstein-esque creation brought to life by Emma Stone in Yorgos Lanthimos’s film Poor Things, really wants sex. She first discovers pleasure by herself, rapturously, before essentially fucking her way across Europe. The experience turns her world into luscious technicolor and sharpens her sense of agency and injustice. Mostly, she just enjoys it, frequently and in many positions, Stone fearlessly goes for every note of carnal ecstasy. She is, as Vulture’s Rachel Handler put it, one of the most shamelessly sexual characters committed to screen.
A blank slate able to experience her own desire completely devoid of social conditioning or judgment, Bella would be confused by the mixed reaction to the film’s sexual fantasia. Some, such as Vulture’s Angelica Jade Bastién, have dismissed it as a deceptively shallow male fantasy of sexual exhibitionism, uninterested in the real sex lives of women. Others, myself included, see Poor Things as a celebration of desire – carnal, intellectual, convivial – and of the extraordinary teamwork between Lanthimos, as director; Stone, as actor and executive producer; and intimacy coordinator Elle McAlpine, who helped choreograph each of the many nude scenes.
