‘Poor Things’ Review – Emma Stone Has Never Looked So EMPTY
Whenever a film coming out of Hollywood gets you universal praise within the industry, that should be the first red flag that something is not right here. For months, progressive critics have been showering universal praise on this movie, claiming that it has the potential to dominate the Oscar Award season.
When you read the synopsis of this film, it definitely begs a few questions. Poor Things is a story about a pregnant young woman named Bella who decided to commit suicide by jumping off a bridge. Her body is found by Dr. Godwin Baxter who was given the nickname ‘God.’
Very subtle.
Baxter decides to resurrect Bella’s dead body by taking the brain of her unborn baby and putting it in her head – turning Bella into his very own Frankenstein experiment. Essentially, she becomes an infant trapped in the body of a 30-year-old woman.
But as time goes on, she begins to learn things about the world and she wants to go on an adventure to find out who she truly is. A course in self-discovery (Hollywood style) always leads to sexual liberation, which basically means whoring yourself out.
I have a few things to unpack here, starting with the fact this film is described as a supposed ultimate female liberation story.
Bella becomes the avatar for the progressive feminist movement trying to navigate her way in a sea of men who want nothing more than to control her. At this, I can’t help but think of a saying: give someone enough rope and they’ll hang themselves.
Or in this case, let Hollywood talk long enough and they will reveal their agenda to you. Poor Things is a film that is soaked in the ideology of the divinely feminine. It takes the ideology of nihilism, feminism, occultism, and anti-humanism and rolls it all into a vehicle for ‘The Message’ right from the jump.
You have a story of a pregnant woman who commits suicide because she’s unhappy with the way her life is going. Right there, you have the film’s way of saving this woman – taking her unborn baby and using it as a sacrifice to save herself (a modern allegory for abortion).
The film uses an anti-biblical allegory to portray the relationship that Bella has with her ‘creator’ whom as I said is referred to as God. As Bella strays away from this would-be deity, Bella wanders into a world that is flooded with mankind and terrible.
Men in this story only want to control women and their only sense of liberation is sleeping with as many people as they possibly can – rich people, poor people, bad eggs, and good eggs. And let’s throw a little bit of lesbianism in there while we’re at it.
The film even goes as far as calling on men to be accepting of Bella’s devious lifestyle. If they’re not, well, maybe they’re misogynists or they’re incels, or whatever.
This is the fundamental problem with modern movies. In 2023, Hollywood creates protagonists that they actually think the majority of its audience is going to identify with.
Bella is created as the avatar for the ‘modern-day female experience,’ and they expect the overwhelming majority of women to see themselves in her. This may be true for women who are devoid of any moral values living in Los Angeles or New York, but it’s simply not a reality for the overwhelming majority of people.
Remember, the film wants you to root for a 30-year-old woman with the brain of a child while she has one aggressive sex scene after another. This goes on for roughly 2.5 hours as if the audience is supposed to sit there rooting for this behavior, instead of being disgusted by the moral bankruptcy behind it.
That brings me back to my other problem with the film – all the men are flawed by design. There isn’t another character outside of Emma Stone for audiences to connect with. And again, that’s by design.
Every male in the film is overly aggressive for some weird reason, and completely obsessed with Bella. I’m not saying that Emma Stone is ugly or anything, but at least the film would make a bit more sense if portrayals weren’t so one-note – or if it starred Margot Robbie, maybe.
Poor Things is completely morally broken and only going to play well to people who read the Huffington Post or who are perpetually on Twitter (I’m not calling it X).
NEXT: ‘Wonka’ Review – Nobody Asked For This Charisma-Less Reboot At All
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