Not so long ago we chose the best films of the year. Traditionally, we collected the biggest highlights of 2023 in December – just a few weeks later The new year has only just begun and yet we’re already starting to talk about the best film of 2024.
While on January 18 you can see the unique cinema experiment “Olfa’s Daughters” (4 stars in the FILMSTARTS review), Roman Polanski’s unfortunately somewhat outdated ensemble comedy “The Palace” (2 stars) and the RomCom “Where the Lie Falls down” (3.5 stars) opens in local cinemas, Today we would like to recommend one of the new cinema releases of the week: “Poor things“.
Because even though there are still 347 days in the year, director Yorgos Lanthimos is once again unleashing a unique fireworks of ideas with his latest genius move – immediately opening the race for both the most original and the best film of the film. 2024…
‘Poor Things’ new in cinemas: that’s what it’s all about
The eccentric scientist Dr. Godwin “God” Baxter (Willem Dafoe) has a new experiment: Bella (Emma Stone) – a young, seemingly mature woman who isn’t exactly that. Because Bella is only at the beginning of her development, which will from now on be documented by student Max McCandless (Ramy Youssef).
Amidst all kinds of other guinea pigs – such as a goat with a duck’s head or a bulldog-goose hybrid – Bella initially learns 15 new words a day. But it doesn’t end there: when Max one day discovers Baxter’s dark secret and learns Bella’s true origins, she begins to show more and more interest in the big, wide world outside, and also in the often mysterious people who live there. It . And on her own body.
And so Bella embarks on an odyssey into the unknown, where she meets, among other things, the shady Duncan Wedderbaum (Mark Ruffalo), who puts on her beautiful eyes, has a lot of sex – and ultimately realizes more and more where her place in the world is: where she but want.
A film that cannot be pigeonholed
At first glance, ‘Poor Things’ is a mix of ‘Bride of Frankenstein’ and ‘Barbie’ – but it’s that simple.The lobster“- And “The favorite“-Creator Yorgos Lanthimos of course not this time either. Ultimately, his latest work is not just a monster movie and certainly not a simple satire.
Like Godwin Baxter, who crosses a wide variety of life forms in the course of his research, Lanthimos also combines a wide variety of influences in a unique way – and science fiction, fantasy, satire, comedy and drama are rarely brought together as harmoniously as they be here. Or as the FILMSTARTS review says: he builds out of all this something entirely his own, a kind of “pleasantly perverse steampunk update of Frankenstein” – which cannot be pigeonholed.
‘Poor Things’ is a unique coming-of-age adventure, a biting sex satire, a beautiful costume film, a visual stunner (characterized by refinement of the direction and fish-eye optics, but also playful, colorful sets à la Wes Anderson ), a real flow of ideas – and a film that puts the supposed limits of cinema through the meat grinder according to every trick in the book. And as for the upcoming Oscars: ‘Poor Things’ will probably receive many nominations – although lead actress Emma Stone in particular will hardly be able to win…