Poor Things: Everything We Know About Emma Stone’s Strange New Movie

Poor Things, which promises to be one of the weirdest (and most fun) movies of the year is almost here! Emma Stone is sure to nab at least a nomination for the transformative role, and we are fully drooling over the sets and costumes.

Based on the novel by the late Alasdair Gray, Poor Things follows Bella Baxter (Stone), a Victorian woman that was resurrected by the “brilliant and unorthodox scientist” Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe). “Under Baxter’s protection, Bella is eager to learn,” reads the film’s description, per Deadline. “Hungry for the worldliness she is lacking, Bella runs off with Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), a slick and debauched lawyer, on a whirlwind adventure across the continents. Free from the prejudices of her times, Bella grows steadfast in her purpose to stand for equality and liberation.”

Here’s everything we know about the wild and wicked Frankenstein-esque flick.

When is Poor Things in theaters? The movie hits theaters stateside on December 5, and in the UK on January 12.

What is Poor Things about? Basically, the movie blends elements of fantasy, comedy, and drama to tell the story of a woman’s quest for freedom.

Who’s in the cast and crew? The team behind 2018’s The Favourite have clearly staged a reunion. Emma Stone (who also produced Poor Things), writer Tony McNamara, and director Yorgos Lanthimos all worked on both projects.

Apart from Stone, Dafoe, and Ruffalo, the cast is rounded out by Margaret Qualley, Christopher Abbott, Kathryn Hunter, Ramy Youssef, and Jerrod Carmichael.

But like, what’s the vibe? The runtime is two hours and twenty-one minutes, so pee before you find your seat. The movie is rated R “for strong and pervasive sexual content, graphic nudity, disturbing material, gore, and language,” according to Cobble Hill Cinema, so maybe don’t take the kids. It won the prestigious Golden Lion (the top prize) at the Venice Film Festival, where it premiered.

“It’s such a a fairy tale, and a metaphor—clearly, this can’t actually happen—but the idea that you could start anew as a woman, as this body that’s already formed, and see everything for the first time and try to understand the nature of sexuality, or power, or money or choice, the ability to make choices and live by your own rules and not society’s—I thought that was a really fascinating world to go into…it was such a great opportunity to live an entire life that wasn’t marked at all by shame or trauma” Stone told Vogue of her experience playing the character of Bella, who experiences basically an entire lifetime of growth over the course of the film.

“She was the most joyous character in the world to play, because she has no shame about anything,” Stone continued. “She’s new, you know? I’ve never had to build a character before that didn’t have things that had happened to them or had been put on them by society throughout their lives. It was an extremely freeing experience to be her.”

The Oscar buzz is already starting. After winning the Academy Award for best actress in 2016 for La La Land, Variety’s senior awards editor Clayton Davis writes that “she delivers the type of performance that could bring a second statuette.” Davis also notes that as a producer, Stone could actually take home two Oscars should the film win best picture.

SOURCE: glamour . com