Poor Things Breathes New Life Into Frankenstein

After a ten-minute standing ovation, do you think the audience might have liked Poor Things at the Venice Film Fest? It’s definitely a different kind of movie but it seems to at least nod to Frankenstein.

Attendants at the Venice Film Fest were the first to enjoy Poor Things as Emma Stone plays a character who has committed suicide, Bella Baxter. Her guardian, Dr. Godwin Baxter played by Willem Dafoe is the mad scientist who concocts a way to bring her back to life. But she’s different when she returns from the dead. She’s very innocent about the world around her as if she has to learn all over again.

Mark Ruffalo plays Duncan Wedderburn, a lawyer who has no morals. As Bella learns more about herself, she decides to run off with the lawyer and see the world. This might be where the standing ovation comes in because it appears that Emma Stone’s sex scene, while it sizzles, was awkward and weird to the viewers, just as it should be when a naive lady is brought back to life after committing suicide.

Doesn’t it seem as if a new trend has started in Hollywood? The concepts of sex and nudity are becoming less inhibitive. First, Jennifer Lawrence goes completely nude in her beach fight scene in No Hard Feelings and now Emma Stone is reported to have gone all out as well. Of course, no one is complaining. We can all relax about sex and nudity now, these things are just as much a part of human nature as eating and breathing. I’m just making an observation.

Poor Things is scheduled to come out in December, which seems like a long time from now. At least, that’s a long time to keep the buzz up about it. But fans are going to like it if Rotten Tomatoes has anything to say about it. Currently, it’s at 100%. Of course, trolls like to skew the results. But honest critics will keep it up that high.