I've heard the highest of praise for this movie, yet also the harshest of criticisms.

Some are calling this movie a masterpiece, while others are saying it's discount rate satire.

Personally, I'm in love with this film, and through my research and insights, I'd like to clarify what this movie is trying to tell us.

Through its many obscure symbols, striking visuals, and countless references.

So we'll discuss this movie in four sections.

The inspiration, the time period, the message, and the symbolism of Poor Things in this spoiler-free analysis.

The inspiration.

The original source material that this film is adapting is a novel published in 1992, also titled Poor Things, by Alastair Gray.

And the setup for this novel is very similar to the film.

Put simply, it's a comedic, quirky, and satirical reimagining of the classic Frankenstein story.

The film and the book have the exact same premise, which is an incredibly wild one, and here it is.

A pregnant suicide victim is brought back to life by a mad scientist, replacing her brain with the premature brain of her unborn child.

This reborn, baby-brained woman is the main character, Bella Baxter, played by Emma Stone.

And through Bella's journey, encountering a series of interesting and diverse characters, Poor Things becomes a thought-provoking, social and political allegory, pointing out the absurdities in the expectations put on women, and the ironies in the desires of many men.

Themes we'll of course dive deeply into in the later sections of this video.

The only difference between the book and the film is the book is told through other characters' perspectives of Bella.

The movie, on the other hand, is told entirely through Bella's perspective, using a fascinating series of narrative and visual techniques.

For example, Bella throughout the film for the most part has a very childlike mind, because she literally has the brain of a child.

So the film is captured in the most grand, wondrous, and curious way.

The same way a child would look around at every city, every building, every room that they enter.

The world is always so animated and spectacular through the eyes of a young and innocent child.

The film specifically uses the most vibrant of colors and widest possible lenses to make every scene, location, and backdrop as big and extravagant as it can possibly be.

Even at times using fisheye-style lenses to capture a child's warped sense of focus through their eyes.

The film's musical score is also very playful, wandering, and purposely directionless, just like a child roaming through a home or a front yard.

The music specifically uses the most quirky and wavy strings and bendy woodwind sounds, like a dark and twisted version of a children's TV show theme song.

Even the sound design was particularly meant to sound cartoony, clunky, and bouncy enough to remain consistent with the childish and curious style of the film.

But there's another aspect of the movie's inspiration that I have to mention.

The time period.

The book itself was inspired by the Victorian era of novels which were being published in the mid to late 19th century, commonly known to be written as social commentary satire.

These novels in this time period very clearly inspired the set design, the wardrobe, and the style of social commentary for the film.

The entire atmosphere and infrastructure of the film is heavily rooted in this time period.

However, in multiple interviews, the team specified that they wanted to decorate this world with some details from various other time periods as well, to ensure that the film's criticisms on society were targeted at all points in time, most importantly, the current era we live in today.

This is why the film ventures into both classic and futuristic styles of drama and science fiction.

The cityscapes of 1927's Metropolis, the satirical comedic style of 1972's Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, and most obviously, the props and set design of 1931's Frankenstein.

The costumes also combine a diverse series of stylistic inspirations from many different time periods.

The puffy sleeved top of the Victorian era combined with the modern look of the high waisted skirt cut above the knees, also at times leading into the space age style of the 1960's and 1970's.

And when it comes to the narrative elements of the film, let's discuss what the filmmaker is specifically trying to tell us about our lives in the next section of this video.

The Message When it comes to the direct message of this film, the reality is there is no direct message.

In an interview with the New York Film Festival, the director Yorgos Lanthimos specifically said, It's exploring.

There's no direct message, I think.

It's mostly creating conditions for characters and situations where you reveal conflicts in human behavior, society around humans, and humans themselves.

So the film is never preaching or directly speaking to us, it's simply pointing out ironies and absurdities in this satirical parallel world to make us realize how absurd and ironic the actual real world is.

And the specific way the film does this is it shows us how a woman would react to the world had she not been influenced by the common norms, customs, and expectations of society.

Bella specifically has five stages of mental growth in this film, from a baby all the way to a woman.

And these stages occur over a very short period of time.

And because of this incredibly rapid mental and emotional growth, Bella is uniquely capable of completely rejecting the pressure and societal expectations commonly put on women.

Since she matures at such a drastic pace, she is unable to be conditioned because mental conditioning requires time, repetition, and reinforcement.

Bella is completely immune to these factors.

For example, she is shamelessly open about her sexuality and non-judgmental of others no matter what they look like or where they're from.

And no matter how manipulative her romantic partner can try to be, she never thinks twice about putting her foot down and saying no.

Because of Bella's unique brain chemistry, she can't be pressured or gaslighted or even persuaded to do anything she doesn't want to do.

The only weakness she does have is her childlike innocence and naivety at first.

But when she gets burned from a mistake, she learns from it incredibly quickly.

And I'm not saying Bella is the perfect role model.

I don't even think the film is trying to say that.

We as people can be a lot more self-aware with a lot more forethought.

But it's more what Bella represents in finding and protecting one's independence that we can all look up to.

And I want to discuss in a little more detail what Bella represents in relation to her surrounding characters and what those characters signify in the real world we live in, in the final section.

The Symbolism It's no mistake in this film that Willem Dafoe's character's name is Godwin.

And for short, Bella calls him God.

Godwin is the mad scientist, surgeon, and professor who gave Bella life when she wasn't supposed to have it.

Either as the mother of the baby or the unborn baby itself.

This specific name and dynamic between Bella and Godwin symbolizes how beliefs in philosophy, spirituality, and religion can at times be instilled into us before we really even get a chance to determine if we actually chose to believe in it.

And I don't think the film is at all downplaying religion or any idea of God with this observation.

And that seems to be proven by the fact that Bella and Godwin have a very loving and supportive relationship, like a lot of people do with their God.

Bella fortunately encounters many friends and strangers with differing philosophies and beliefs, allowing her to develop her own morals and values on a very even and unbiased playing field.

She's respectful of them enough to absorb their insights, but far away enough from them to question and challenge them without any second thought.

Duncan Wedderburn and Max McCandles also represent two juxtaposing forms of male-to-female admiration.

Duncan, representing the shallow, superficial form, and Max, representing the much more passionate and genuine form.

In reality, a Duncan can often easily disguise himself as a Max, which is reflected in the and how Bella doesn't truly detect the difference between them at first.

But most importantly, what I haven't said about Bella and what may be the most important symbolically for the movie, is she represents a second shot at life for not only the unborn baby, but also the mother.

The mother, being suicidal, suffered a lot of misfortune in her life, and had the baby been born, she may have also had to suffer a similar experience in intergenerational trauma and oppression.

Bella is the rewritten story of both women, discovering a new life of greater independence and liberation.

A living, breathing symbol of the end of this crushing cycle of pressure.