 Now it's time for us to dive into the strange and unusual with the latest film from Yorgos Lanthimos, who lives in the bizarre with movies like 'Lobster,' 'The Favorite' and 'The Killing of a Sacred Deer' just to name a few. This title manages to take his vision for adapting the 1992 Alasdair Gray novel of the same name while simultaneously looking at someone like Tim Burton and saying, "Hold my beer and watch this!" If you're looking for something truly bizarre and outlandish while still having a lot to say, you need not look any further than this fever dream of a film.
Taking place in Victorian London, with set designs that lend themselves to a dream world version of it, a young, pregnant lady (Emma Stone) commits suicide by leaping to her fate. She is found by an eccentric surgeon named Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe), who transplants her now-dead adult brain with that of her own infant, thereby creating a sort of Frankenstein monster from her whom he names Bella. With her infantile brain kicking off this new life, we watch as she slowly develops the basics, like speech and motor skills, along with discovering things about herself as she grows, namely in the realm of sexuality. In the meantime, Godwin takes a medical student named Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef) under his wing to assist him with observing Bella and taking notes of her growing behaviour. Max becomes infatuated with Bella and is ultimately respectful enough to see her as more than an experiment. Eventually, he even asks for her hand in marriage, with Godwin's permission; Godwin portrays much more of a father figure to her than anything else. Instead of wanting to settle down with Max, however, Bella craves seeing the outside world, which is where the sleazy lawyer Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo) comes in. Reluctantly, Godwin allows Bella to leave with Duncan to see how things work on the outside, and likewise, Max understands that she doesn't understand how the world works, right down to commitment to one person. Although they marry, Bella doesn't really grasp why people need to be held to one person and, therefore, sees no wrongdoing in her desire to go with Duncan, especially with the simple revelation that sex is fun. But don't worry, this comes back to bite Duncan in hilarious ways as she eventually matures and all the wrong reasons he's into her start fading away. Eventually, the pair get to a cruise ship to show Bella some changes of scenery, and she befriends fellow passengers Martha (Hanna Schygulla) and Harry (Jerrod Carmichael), who opens her mind to philosophy, which Bella uses (along with her sexuality) to develop herself into a strong, independent woman. In the meantime, she sends Godwin postcards about her adventure, along with all of the new stuff she's learning, be it good or bad, and it's pretty fascinating to see a developing brain take these things on for the first time. I think the biggest stand-out here, without question, is Stone's overall performance. I have to commend her on how brave she got with things here between acting like an infant, putting on a fake but good English accent and, of course, baring all for the world to see with the sex she has in this, of which there is plenty. It probably is the best performance she's ever given, considering everything. She owns it here and gives the other actresses of the year a run for their money. I say that with a bit of a bias; after all, Emma Stone is my favourite actress in Hollywood today. But one can't watch this without giving her tremendous respect for going for it and not holding anything back. Apart from that, though, here we have an original idea full of strange, almost fairytale-like whimsy (along with a fair share of fairy tale darkness) with set pieces and cinematography straight out of a true artist's imagination. While Stone heads this movie with her performance, everyone here is still very good with their roles. A lot of it is creepy, a lot of it is funny, and a decent chunk of it is dramatic. Speaking personally, I found it a truly unique project, and I respect Emma Stone far more than I already did... which was a lot! My only real word of warning: be ready to embrace the truly bizarre with this one. It really is a fever dream on the screen. 5/5
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 Jennifer Lawrence is one of those celebs that has sort of waxed and waned over the years. One second she's Hollywood's sweetheart, the next second she's phoning it in as Mystique in the later 'X-Men' movies, we respect her for furthering her acting career with more serious stuff, but then we miss the fun that she once was, and she doesn't help by saying certain things about female heroes that... I still kinda feel is a foot-in-mouth deal, but let's face it, people were not happy. Well, this may just be a personal thing, but after this, I kinda like her again.
I should probably mention that the film isn't by any means great. It's fairly typical and predictable in its overall execution, but it meets its audience halfway with a bit of realism as things go. It happens to be a pretty funny not-quite-raunchy comedy that won't have anyone laughing to the point of tears, but it deserves a good chuckle here and there for what it's worth. There's a certain chemistry these two main characters have that I couldn't help but appreciate because it looks like such a terrible contrast on the surface. I mean, just look at the accompanying picture. The film does awkward humour pretty well. The central plot involves Uber Driver/Bartender, Maddie Barker (Lawrence) who is looking at bankruptcy after owing property taxes for her inherited home as well as getting her car repossessed. Desperate to make ends meet, she answers a Craigslist ad of two helicopter parents (Matthew Broderick and Laura Benanti) requesting a woman, preferably in her 20s, to date their 19-year-old son, Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman), as he has a terrible time socializing and coming out of his shell. The reward for her succeeding in everything is a Buick Regal, which Maddie can use for her Uber driving, and therefore attempt to make ends meet before she loses the house. This parental need to boost Percy's confidence is because he'll be attending Princeton University in the Fall, and the parents worry that he won't have any sort of a University social life, which, to be fair, is also a reason for attending college or university for most human beings. he has no experience with parties, drinking, drugs (even light ones) or sex, and this is what Maddie is meant to get him through so that he's prepared for the upcoming school season. The big catch? It all has to be done without Percy's knowledge. So basically, this is immediately gonna be one of those situational comedies that seem entirely predictable, and to some degree, a lot of it is. When I look at a comedy like this, I try to find all of its redeeming qualities. Even though it may feel like a plot that we've seen time and time again (it IS roughly the same core plot to movies like 'Happy Gilmore'), there will be aspects about it that I take positively. Here, nothing really shines quite as much as the chemistry between these two. Maddie is a bit of a b-word, for the most part, and she has to deal with this kid who's significantly younger than her, as well as incredibly shy and sort of odd and, I hate to say it, but wimpy. A little too straight and narrow for anyone's taste. But they do end up meeting in the middle with quite a bit of heart and understanding for each other. Feldman does such a good job of being the weird, inexperienced teenager that even Michael Cera would look at him and think his roles were "tough-guy" roles in comparison. Thatès the kind of thing that will irritate some, but I had to give him credit for diving into such an embarrassing role. As for Lawrence, she just plain owns it here. I won't go into detail about it, but I will suggest that any controversy behind her leaked photos is pretty much obsolete now, considering one particular scene that I won't spoil for anyone here, complete, because it's a great comedic bit that will catch audiences a bit off-guard. All in all, it certainly delivered a good chuckle or two. But I do have to admit that this is a film that should be seen as not much more than a fun romp of a comedy for the summer. Rather than comparing its comedy factor to director Gene Stupnitsky's previous work of 'Good Boys', which had me laughing out loud for a lot of it, I'd say it's a bit closer to something like the 'Neighbours' movies. It's fine for what it is, but it's not something I'll be hunting down in the near future because I loved it so much that I need to show my friends. Some may have turned their backs on J-Law since "The Katniss Incident", but I never did. So if there's still a place in your heart for her, give this one a whirl. You might be surprised. 3/5 |
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