‘Poor Things’ Review: Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos Fly Their Freak Flags in a Delicious Coming-of-Age Story Like No Other

Indian film star Anil Kapoor, better known in the West for his role in Danny Boyle’s “Slumdog Millionaire” and “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol”, made a splash at the recently concluded Toronto International Film Festival with “Thank You For Coming” – which he co-produces and stars in.

EXCLUSIVE: Showtime is developing Jonah Kills, a UK-based comedy created and written by Clem Garritty. It hails from Jax Media UK, which commissioned up-and-comer Garritty to generate four scripts before the comedy was pitched to Showtime. There is no work currently being done on the scripts but I hear the intention is to cast and film a pilot after the strikes, and veteran TV director Iain B. MacDonald (Poker Face, Shantaram) has been tapped to direct it.

Tom Sandoval just doesn’t learn his lessons, does he?

Things are officially over between Lindsay Hubbard and Carl Radke.

The Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion has been given to a winner!

It’s interesting how the Venice Film Festival has gone from one of the festivals of the fall festival season to arguably the best film festival in the world now, even overshadowing Cannes in recent years thanks to the fact that Netflix now avoids the Croisette for the most part because of France’s theatrical laws and save their Oscar contenders for the Lido. Venice has had an amazing run, arguably since 2017 when Guillermo del Toro’s “The Shape Of Water” won the top prize and then went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture, which has happened one more time since with “Nomadland” and several key Oscar contenders since).

Speaking at the Venice Film Film Festival winners’ press conference, Poor Things director Yorgos Lanthimos said he was “personally very disappointed” that his lead actress Emma Stone couldn’t be with him to enjoy the film’s Golden Lion win, but that he also “understands the cause”, referring to the SAG-AFTRA strike which has kept the actress away.

Guy Lodge Film Critic Frank Marshall’s film “Alive” has never exactly been a classic, but for a certain bracket of moviegoers who saw it in 1993, it remains a vivid memory. A heart-in-mouth recreation of the 1972 Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crash — from which 16 people eventually survived 72 days stranded in a remote, snowy stretch of the Andes in western Argentina, while 29 perished — it visualized the events past the remit of worldwide news reports and magazine stories.

Guy Lodge Film Critic The closing-night awards ceremony of the 80th Venice Film Festival has concluded, with the critical favorite and presumed frontrunner, Yorgos Lanthimos’s Emma Stone-starring adult fantasy “Poor Things,” living up to the buzz — it has taken the Golden Lion from Damien Chazelle’s jury. Other winners include Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Agnieszka Holland, Matteo Garrone and U.S.

Ben Croll Remarking on the sterling success of Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things” in Venice and of Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest” in Cannes, “All Quiet on the Western Front” director Edward Berger has noticed a trend – and he hopes to apply that recognition back to the German industry. “Film4 came and took [filmmakers like Jonathan Glazer,] Yorgos Lanthimos and Steve McQueen and gave them the opportunity, fostering them and sheltering them and [helping] them make their movies — and look where they are now,” said Berger at a Venice Film Festival panel.

It’s always fun to watch a relationship between an actor and filmmaker develop. Perhaps the most famous recent example is between Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor “Sex is back,” said Julie Hintsinger, executive director of the Telluride Film Festival, to a packed house of festival-goers as they took in the newest effort from Yorgos Lanthimos at this year’s 50th anniversary. One of the festivals tributes this year, a pre-screening convo was moderated by director Karyn Kusama, as the two discussed his filmography which included his early works “Kinnetic” and “Alps.” In the audience were Oscar winners like director Chloé Zhao (“Nomadland”) and actor Casey Affleck (“Manchester by the Sea”), and they, along with the crowd, devoured it.

Christopher Vourlias The question of whether Hollywood stars will light up the Lido this week has roiled the film industry in the run-up to the Venice Film Festival. “Poor Things” lead actress Emma Stone was among the marquee names that were holding out for a SAG-AFTRA exemption allowing her to promote the Frankenstein-inspired period film from Oscar nominee Yorgos Lanthimos (“The Favourite”), which bowed in competition Friday to a lengthy standing ovation and rave reviews.

Emma Stone isn’t just a major A-list star, she’s also a fan favorite star.

Poor Things,” the oddest movie to premiere at this year’s Venice Film Festival, landed the biggest standing ovation so far. On Friday night, Yorgos Lanthimos’ drama, starring Emma Stone as a woman who finds her identity through a series of tragic (and scientific) events, received an eight-minute standing ovation at its world premiere. “Genius! We love you! Yorgos!” the crowd chanted at the auteur director behind “The Favourite” and “The Lobster.” Lanthimos lapped up the love and attention, as he walked down the balcony of the Sala Grande Theatre, shaking hands with his fans and signing autographs.

Dynamic Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos’ anticipated latest, Poor Things, got a rapturous reception at after it world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on Friday, with a standing ovation timed at 10 minutes and 37 seconds.

There are plenty of intriguing titles vying for the Golden Lion at this year’s Venice Film Festival. But Yorgos Lanthimos‘ “Poor Things,” the director’s first film since 2018’s “The Favorite,” may be the most intriguing of all.

A parent’s desire to trap their offspring in perpetual childhood is not a foreign concept to Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos, whose 2009 psychological drama “Dogtooth” chronicled the dysfunctional routine of a wealthy businessman, his meek wife, and their severely infantilized adult children.

Back in 2009, Yorgos Lanthimos led the so-called Greek Weird Wave with the Oscar-nominated Dogtooth, an unsettling exploration of a family of teenagers kept from the world by their father in a gated estate that they could never leave. The family is rich, so they can have anything they want except the wide world and their freedom; even sex can be bought in. 

Emma Stone‘s Poor Things director Yorgos Lanthimos opened up about working with her on intimate scenes in the movie while attending a press conference at the 2023 Venice Film Festival.