Poor Things

in the current state of cinema, movies are just empty puzzle pieces to a larger picture, which only makes me feel unfulfilled by the lack of substance. however, the only way i can describe poor things is a full-course meal that will be studied for years to come. there are layers and layers of subtext and ideas, most of which i probably won’t realize until my many rewatches. while the many re-contextualizations of frankenstein are nowhere near as profound as mary shelley’s original novel, yorgos lanthimos’ story about adventure, wonder, terror, and sexuality comes very close. while many characters are complacent with cruelty or are cruel themselves, bella baxter’s journey through the bad things, good things, and the poor things explores human nature and empathy in such a way i’ve never seen before. for such a strange, quirky movie, it provides so much nuance to its subject matter through the bizarre storytelling.  side note: i really hope this wins best picture.