Emma Stone responds to claims that ‘Poor Things’ is “sexist and exploitative”
Following criticism of Poor Things as a “sexist and exploitative” movie, Oscar-nominated actor Emma Stone has made a public statement.
In the new Yorgos Lanthimos direction, Stone portrays Bella Baxter, a dead woman brought back to life by a mad scientist in Victorian London using the brain of an unborn baby. The embryonic cadaver then goes on a journey of sexual and personal discovery.
Some viewers have come forward to criticise the movie’s problematic nature. Namely, concern surrounds the fact that a man directed a story where the leading lady is given the brain of an infant.
In a new statement to The Times, Stone said: “If it helps, as the person who played it and produced it, I didn’t see her as a child in any of those scenes.”
“But even that’s too literal,” Lanthimos added. “If you take a film that literally, where you start discussing it in terms of the brain of a child, then you’re kind of missing the point of storytelling in general. If you start to analyse the film as something that would actually happen, then of course the film doesn’t work.”
Stone continued to discuss how different people reacted differently to the movie. “My mum has this saying that at the start of a relationship, you say, ‘Oh, we’re so in love we finish each other’s sentences.’ And then, as time goes by, it becomes, ‘You’re always interrupting me.’
“That can happen in a relationship with film, too, especially a film like this, that’s asking more questions than giving answers. I know people who’ve seen the film and think it’s just the sweetest romantic comedy, and others who had to watch it through their fingers. And that’s great.”
In a four-star review of Poor Things, Far Out said: “The actual story is more than engaging enough, but with the aid of Robbie Ryan’s cinematography and genuinely Oscar-worthy production design, an expansive and mind-bogglingly original world of Victorian fantasia is brought to life and used as a vibrant canvas upon which to tell it.”
Watch the trailer for Poor Things below.
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