Poor Things

[Michael Hammond]

Just saw this film over the weekend and wasn't sure what to expect to be honest. I just knew there was some buzz about the story line and some set design. I was pleasantly surprised and really liked this one. It's kind of a coming-of-age tale but told differently - in a strange parallel world type of setting. Set and art design were creative, the characters were fun and interesting. And the cinematography was different enough to be different without being over-the-top. I think it was used to good effect with fish-eye and wide shots (4mm I've read) being used to tell you how someone was feeling, or that something was about to happen, zooms (digitally done I think) combined with push-ins for a nice effect, etc. B&W mixed with color to set tones and times.

From IndieWire - "The cinematographer (Robbie Ryan) sometimes would put a 16mm lens on the 35mm camera which created a vignette effect reminiscent of the dark borders surrounding early photography prints." And "another distinctive lens was a Petzval lens, which are rehoused projector lenses from the early 20th century that create a beautiful portrait look while still having some wide-angle wildness to it."

Fun movie with some fun cinematography. Definitely recommend this one.

[Tyler Purcell]

Me too! I really enjoyed it. Not the biggest fan of the vignette concept, I felt it was distracting. Robbie Ryan is a brilliant person tho and his work stands up on every film, Poor Things is no different. The Petzval lens was such a cool idea, I really absolutely love the look and how it drew attention to the subjects. I felt the use of Ektachrome was a shift that worked well and the shifting to black and white, to keep the audience ever slightly on edge, worked too. I also thought it was cool they pulled out a vista vision camera for the scene where they first breathed life into her.

Plot wise, you have to be dedicated for the first hour. I think it takes a while to warm up. Once it's going, on the ship and such, it starts to make sense and the film's trajectory falls more in line with audience expectation. The emotional impact at the end, was something I didn't expect, as the film starts with heavily flawed characters, doing outrages things, but in the end, becomes more of a serious dive into what makes us who we are. It was a clever, round about way to portray such a wildly discussed subject, but it worked nicely, almost with a bowtie at the end. To me, it's his best movie, even though "The Favorite" and "The Lobster" were so damn good. It's heartbreaking picking one of them, I love them so much. 

I still think "The Favorite" is the most re-watchable and most accessible the masses tho. "Poor Things" has similar issues to "Killing of a "Sacred Deer" in that, you have to be willing to take the emotional hit. Some people, are already on edge too much and they just don't have the energy to deal with it. These are pieces of art for the thinking person, not really entertainment. I just can't wait for his next one "Kinds of Kindness", seems like the same damn cast too! hahah 😛