Poor Things AKA Sexy Baby Lady Frankenstein
Despite my appreciation for Yorgos Lanthimos’ earlier work, I was not planning on seeing Poor Things. A lot of my feminist friends were not fans and I figured I could skip it. But then I learned that Kathryn Hunter was in it, playing a madam, and I got curious. (I worked with Kathryn on a show in London a while ago so she’s very dear to me.) So I watched it.
Apparently there was a whole conversation around whether or not this was a feminist film. (Answer: not.) But it is, as my friend said, some men’s idea of a feminist film. Which is really not the same. This is not to say that men can’t make feminist films. If Lanthimos made a bio pic of Gloria Steinem, maybe that would be a feminist film. (Though maybe not if he chose to focus exclusively on her relationships with men or only her Playboy bunny stunt but otherwise it would be hard to NOT make a feminist film about Steinem.) But while this film may pass the Bechdel test on a technicality (I think the conversation between Emma Stone and Kathryn Hunter was longer than thirty seconds and not about A man – it was about how to service men so… ) I’m not sure I’d give it the point. A film in which a woman is largely on her own in the world of men does not scratch any feminist itch of mine. Women working toward equality and the benefit of other women is the main criteria for that as far as I’m concerned.
To keep reading Poor Things, AKA Sexy Baby Lady Frankenstein visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog.
This is Episode 402
Song: Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon
Image - still from the movie
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Emily Rainbow Davis