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Reviews
Poor Things (2023)
Risque empirical rationalism and the human spirit
This is a beautifully rendered tale of a woman growing and maturing to a person that does not care what fops and jerks think. She refuses to be limited by how she was made and is curious about all facets of life.
The characters and sets are exaggerated so there's a hue of surreal throughout but the story itself follows familiar plot development so not what I'd call surreal. The characters are all flawed in various ways, making it fundamentally quite realistic underneath the bizarre face of it.
Many compare to Frankenstein though this is the inverse of Shelley's tale. Her monster is as brilliant as Bella, but Shelley's monster becomes embittered and angry at the world's rejection. It is incapable of transcending it's maker into something beyond the sum of its parts and spirals into despair and lust for revenge. Bella is more fierce in that she refuses the acquiesce to "polite society" or any she find reprehensible. She defines her own values and morality based on empathy and free exchange of ideas.
If you think book burnings are great and/or have a Jesus-ee stick up your ass, you probably won't like it because those indicate the limit of your perspective. It's a big middle finger to faux morality front used to cover levels of societal controls such as religion and aggressive ignorance.
Bella is strong, capable and free. She runs toward experience in order to free herself from patriarchies in various forms seeking to limit her, even those that purport to care about her. She is not rescued nor does she seek it. She is the hero of her own story. If you don't like it, then Bella would probably tell you that's your problem not the film.