Poor Things (2023)

A half-duck, half-dog waddles around Willem Dafoe’s backyard in Poor Things, and it barely ranks among the strangest things on screen. Yorgos Lanthimos made an adults-only fairy tale, and at 141 minutes it sometimes seems more interested in daring you than in moving along. The trip abroad drifts, and Mark Ruffalo repeats the same meltdown until it becomes its own routine. But Emma Stone is unreal. Bella starts out walking like her legs are a rental and talking in toddler fragments, and Stone grows her up scene by scene until she’s smarter than everyone around her. Her dance scene in Lisbon is pure chaos, and I loved every jerky second. Dafoe, under a face full of stitches, gives the mad scientist real tenderness. Every set looks like a dollhouse built by someone who’s never seen a house. An 8.3 because Stone gives a performance almost nobody else would risk, in a movie that could have used a trim. $48 says you spot a shirt with giant puffy sleeves in a store window this month and seriously consider it.

What works: Stone’s fearless, physical performance is the whole show, and the costumes, sets and odd lenses make every frame look like nothing else.

What doesn’t: At 141 minutes the middle sags, and the movie sometimes seems more interested in shocking you than in telling its story.

Who it’s for: Grown-ups who love strange, gorgeous art films and want a lead performance they’ll argue about for weeks.