Though considerably more out-there than your average Oscar bait, all the hoopla and pearl-clutching about the spicy sex scenes in “Poor Things” doesn’t alter the fact that it was the most accessible and commercial Yorgos Lanthimos movie to date by a country mile. Especially given the Greek director’s newfound status as a perennial Oscar contender and festival circuit mainstay, you couldn’t really blame unsuspecting audiences for gleefully flocking to theaters to watch his latest on day one expecting to be greeted with yet another cult classic in the making. Well, so much for that.
This three-legged, New Orleans-set anthology piece starring Jesse Plemons, Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, and Margaret Qualley was written off by pundits, barely made a blip at the box office, and, in all likelihood, won’t be cleaning up shop and taking home a pile of awards come March. But if nothing else, watching a critical darling fresh off a 4-Oscar campaign roll the dice and go for broke to get a passion project as uncompromisingly weird as this out in the open is cause for celebration. It almost makes one believe we might even be on the cusp of a new ‘auteur era’ after all (Sweet Dreams, indeed…) That is to say, bring on “Bugonia”!
