Poor Things

Me and my roommate took shrooms and watched this in an empty theater on Super Bowl Sunday. My takeaways:  -the physical comedy/acting was alluring, literally my eyes could not leave the way Bella walked/emoted/gestured anytime she was on screen. Willem Dafoe was almost menacing but also like comforting like a father figure, very reminiscent of his moniker “God.” And I’ve never seen mark ruffalo like this and it was so hilarious and unsettling and just wow - I don’t know if it was the shrooms or the cinematography but goddamn. The sets were simple but also like what I wish those places looked like in real life. The surrealism in the skies and the blur on the edge of the cameras focus gave a really soft undertone and as Bella’s mind matured and she begins to see the world more clearly, the camera focuses as well, leaving the background to be a collage of the world she’s experiencing. The fish lens and the wide curved shots did a lot to make the movie more beautiful. I’m sure they also hold meaning but honestly it was just stunning to look at. Every scene could be freeze framed and it would be a work of art. The colors and the way they were assigned to people and places and ideas and how Bella’s color palette  aged with her was just such a cool visual story to accompany the written one. Literally so beautiful. -not gonna lie, when the movie started I was very put off by the sexualization of essentially an infant, but as the movie went on I understood that was literally the point. Bella’s journey to finding her life is the same journey everyone goes through, especially those afab, albeit hers more rapidly. But seeing the way she was infantilized, sexualized, having expectations and rules put on her by varying different people (mostly men), it beautifully and hilariously spells out the life experiences of many. Her goals are unchanging and she is unafraid of the consequences of achieving those goals. Closing arguments: I had a lot of jump scares in this one and at no point did I expect what was coming next. Still, I couldn’t take my eyes away 4.5/5