‘Ultra-horny’ Poor Things sees Emma Stone’s eye-popping sex scenes draw gasps, laughter – and Oscar buzz
Emma Stone has been heaped with praise for her no holds barred performance in new film Poor Things, which comes with a slew of ‘ultra-horny’ and eye-popping sex scenes.
They drew gasps and shocked laughter from the audience on Sunday as it screened at the 2023 BFI London Film Festival to Metro.co.uk and other critics and industry attendees.
The La La Land star, 34, who has been dubbed ‘one of cinema’s horniest legends’ for her turn by Vulture, takes the lead in director Yorgos Lanthimos’ latest film, based on the 1992 novel by Alasdair Gray.
She is Bella Baxter, a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant but unorthodox scientist Dr Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe) in this bonkers but bold and brilliant take on the Frankenstein tale.
Presenting with the body of a woman but the mild of a child, Bella is eager to learn of the world and chafes under Baxter’s protection, coping with her growing sexual curiosity by ‘working herself’ before stuffing an apple and then a cucumber inside what she terms her ‘hairy business’.
And that is just the start of the more wild and explicit content in Poor Things, so brace yourself as Bella starts off on an adventurous sexual odyssey of discovery.
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She runs off with rakish and debauched lawyer Duncan Wedderburn (a moustache-twirling Mark Ruffalo) on a whirlwind trip across Europe, which involves montages of their athletic sex sessions – or ‘furious jumping’ – while the caddish Wedderburn boasts that she has been ‘thrice f**ked by the very best’ in one scene.
After reports of some viewers bolting for the door in Poor Things’ racier moments at its Venice Film Festival world premiere, it seemed the capital’s critics were a little more prepared for the raunchier aspects of the movie.
Alongside full-frontal nudity from Stone and her numerous sex scenes, there was also a fair amount of shocked guffawing or raucous laughter in response to some of Bella’s more brutally truthful comments too.
For example, when she starts to experiment outside of her relationship with Wedderburn and returns with tattooed inner thighs, he pushes away from her in disgust, leading her to plaintively ask: ‘What of the tongue-play you were about to perform? Is that not happening?’
Let’s just say, the female contingent in the cinema made themselves known and heard at that point.
Bella also critiques Wedderburn’s penis in polite company, takes part in light BDSM and offers frank advice on sexual tricks as she grows in confidence while on her quest for liberation and equality.
‘Poor Things is an ultra bonkers, ultra horny, visually dazzling odyssey driven by your new favourite Emma Stone performance,’ declared one critic on X (formerly Twitter) afterwards, while another added that it was ‘a crackpot, erotically-charged riff on the Frankenstein myth’.
Someone else labelled it a ‘spectacular odyssey of sex and violence’, while another viewer shared: ‘So happy to see everyone loved Poor Things and all its horny weirdness as much as I did.’
‘Lots of humour, lots of sex, lots of Emma Stone!’ noted one person, adding: ‘Really felt convinced by her personal journey, a best actress nom is surely incoming.’
This was a sentiment echoed by many others, with Stone being described as ‘indomitable’, with others calling her ‘on her way to a second Oscar’.
She was also charged with ‘completely steal[ing] the show’ and giving the performance both of her career – and the whole of 2023.
Lanthimos has also expressed his admiration for his leading lady’s performance in the film as he explained that they felt they ‘shouldn’t shy away’ from the explicit scenes as they were ‘a very important part of her journey’.
‘It would feel very disingenuous to tell this story about this character who is so free and so open, and then be prude about the sexual aspect of it,’ he explained at the New York Film Festival in September.
‘It was clear from the beginning, but also from the novel, from the script, from my discussions with Emma, as well, and how we came up with those scenes.
‘She had to be free; there should be no judgment.’
He also called the Easy A and Cruella actress ‘incredible’ for her approach.
‘The vulnerability of it, the sensitivity and the humour of it — it’s just so difficult to do. I just don’t know how she did it,’ he added.
Poor Things also stars Ramy Youssef, Christopher Abbott, Jerrod Carmichael and Vicki Pepperdine.
It has a screenplay by Tony McNamara, who previously collaborated with Lanthimos and Stone for 2018’s Oscar and Bafta-winning The Favourite.
Poor Things is scheduled for release in UK cinemas on January 12, 2024.
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