POOR THINGS ****

 I can virtually guarantee you've never seen a mainstream movie like "Poor Things" nor are you likely to ever see anything like it again. Adapted, (brilliantly), by Tony McNamara from Alasdair Gray's novel this is a cinematic tour-de-force from director Yorgis Lanthimos, (his masterpiece and is he likely ever to surpass it), with a career-defining performance by Emma Stone.

She's Bella Baxter, the 'creation' of Dr. Godwin Baxter, (a never better Willem Dafoe), who likes people to call him God, in the same way that 'the monster' was created by Dr. Frankenstein, (Godwin resembles Karloff's 'monster' rather than Colin Clive's doctor); a cadaver brought back from the dead with the brain of her own unborn baby planted in her head.

This is, however, far from any conventional horror film. Rather it's a work of pure imagination; a vast, darkly comic epic, (and a very funny one), that blends past, future and pure fantasy in one glorious X-rated mix, (think a porn version of "The Bride of Frankenstein"). It's a movie that never quite goes where you expect it to and in ways that at times seem revolutionary.

Stone commands the screen, (she's seldom off it), for its two hours and 20 minutes running time backed by a brilliant supporting cast. As her creator Willem Dafoe gives us the most sympathetic mad scientist in movie history. Mark Ruffalo, brilliantly cast against type, is the roue who doesn't so much seduce Bella as take her on a mad sexual adventure. Ramy Youssef is Dafoe's kindly assistant who loves her while both Hanna Schygulla and Kathryn Hunter are remarkable as women who befriend her for good or ill. By the time Bella becomes the mistress of her own future and domain you may just feel like standing up and cheering her on and if you do the kudos will lie with both Stone and Lanthimos, an actor/director team made in heaven.