Yorgos Lanthimos has
not distinguished himself with easy-to-digest films right away.
His most famous, "The Lobster" (2016) and "The Favourite" (2018) can both be described as cynical satires.
So can "Poor things".
In loud, wildly mixed reviews the world over, the film has been called everything from bizarre, exhausting, repulsive and lewd - and that's right, "Poor things" is all that at once.
The theme is a woman's journey
towards freedom and self-esteem, via sexuality, and it is precisely this that created emotions in audiences and critics.
Emma Stone plays Bella, a version of Frankenstein's monster, where the monstrous element is that she cannot be regulated.
She doesn't understand conventions, what to keep quiet about and what not.
She does not understand shame, has no idea that there are desires that should be curbed.
This makes her desirable on the one hand, the ladies' man Duncan Wedderburn (a wonderfully carnal Mark Ruffalo) sees in her someone who, like him, is hungry for adventure.
But when she develops a greater appetite for both life and sex than he does, he perishes.
Research assistant Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef) instead falls in love with her curious openness and thirst for knowledge, something he himself recognizes in his role as a medical student.
Bella's development is both
intellectual and physical, she goes from barely being able to control her body to mastering it.
It takes impressive acting from Emma Stone, not to mention artistic courage.
With a less talented actress, the film would have become a farce.
Bella's development is also matched by an exquisite play with image, her early confined life takes place in black and white but as the world opens up to her it is hyper-coloured and her dresses more and more opulent and fanciful.
All of the film's components
are
so masterful that you can't help but be amazed yourself, just like Bella, in front of what it means to be a woman first and a human second.