by Jarrod Jones. With the 59th Chicago International Film Festival in full swing, DoomRocket is here to highlight its choicest selections. In review: Yorgos Lanthimos’s Poor Things; Ivan Sen’s Limbo.
POOR THINGS. [United States, United Kingdom, Ireland.]
What happens when the Bride of Frankenstein gets a taste of the finer things in life? Antics. More specifically, a scandalous Buñuelian farce helmed by Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos. His latest is a sumptuous, decadent, frequently depraved confection that dresses up topics like sexual curiosity, hostile urbanity, and female empowerment in gilded Victorian finery, yet it never becomes frivolous — even when it threatens to. The costuming (by Holly Waddington) and art direction (led by Géza Kerti) both gorgeously reflect the heightened Victorian setting — think Hammer Horror by way of Wonkaland. Lanthimos lets us soak in all this grandeur through Robbie Ryan’s wide-angled lensing, amplified to a distracting degree by a not-infrequent use of fisheye lenses. (Does this add to the film’s overall visual quality? Absolutely not.)
The performances are sturdy across the board (though Charmichael looks a bit lost), with Dafoe doing a soft-touch riff on the Frankenstein/Moreau archetype. But it’s Emma Stone — arriving to the film tottering like a newly animated doll and later using her cigarette-scorched voice to cut through academic hogwash and stuffy polite society to say, do, and be whatever she wants, whenever she wants — who dominates the show. Sordid opulence seems to bring something out in Lanthimos (see: The Favourite) that allows him to flex his proclivities more clearly than in his other work (see: The Killing of a Sacred Deer). Here, he goes buck-wild. Is that always a good thing? Well. Poor Things is a feast with too many courses; some are harder to swallow than others. But it’s impossible to walk out of this not feeling satisfied, and full.
8.5 out of 10
Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos.
Screenplay by Tony McNamara.
Cinematography by Robbie Ryan.
Starring Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe, Ramy Youssef, Christopher Abbott, and Jerrod Carmichael.
Produced by Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe, Yorgos Lanthimos, and Emma Stone.
Rated R for cadaver opening, various swaying genitals, and much furious jumping.
LIMBO [Australia; U.S. Premiere]
Ivan Sen dedicates his career to telling indigenous stories; in this regard, Limbo could be his peak. An arid Outback noir structured like a confessional, Limbo tackles a fictional 20-year-old crime that has left the citizenry of a small mining town numb to the perpetual disappointment in the local police force to finally see justice done. Sen, who also shot and edited the film, effectively harnesses an indelible sense of cruel resignation, illustrating with precision that dull void inside where anger wanders directionless.
Sen parallels this procedural, where Simon Baker’s emotionally-wiped copper reviews the cold case, with Australia’s centuries-long mistreatment of the Aboriginal people, a clean contrast accentuated by an understated but perpetual ache of quiet agonies and regret. Amid all this isolation and emotional devastation, what’s terrific about Limbo is its heart, which beats a little more loudly throughout its otherwise dead-silent 109-minute stretch, with its accumulation of human detail, idiosyncrasies, humor, and understanding articulated by the lined faces of Baker and Natasha Wanganeen.
Limbo also has some of the finest b&w cinematography I’ve seen in a long minute; the desert backdrop takes on a lunar aspect where caverns, graves, and sinkholes make navigation a life-or-death trial (“Danger: Deep Shafts,” says one local posting), as though the Earth, like people, can be hollowed out only so much before it falls in on itself, swallowing up what makes living good and right, never to be seen again.
7.5 out of 10
Directed, written, and shot by Ivan Sen.
Produced by Ivan Sen, Elaine Crombie, Rachel Higgins, David Jowsey, and Greg Simpkin.
Starring Simon Baker, Rob Collins, Natasha Wanganeen, Nicolas Hope, and Joshua Warrior.
Unrated. Contains drug use and casual Aussie swearing.
Our CIFF 2023 coverage continues all week.
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For a good, spooky time, get reacquainted with the squidgy party animals of Ghoulies
