Emma Stone's Best Actress win at the recent Academy Awards may have surprised some pundits, but those who have seen "Poor Things" will understand why her performance was so well received Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos' latest film also won Oscars for costumes, production design, and makeup/hair styling, a testament to the striking visuals Lanthimos brought to the screen [Stone plays Bella Baxter, a hybrid creature with the brain of a newborn transplanted into her adult body This strange juxtaposition allows her to discover a new world and gives Lanthimos a chance to satirize another version of Victorian England's sexism and class structure Now that the film is newly available on Hulu, here are five more films like "Poor Things" to watch afterwards
The first teaming of Lanthimos, Stone, and screenwriter Tony McNamara, this film is far less fantastical than "Poor Things," but it remains an outrageously bold film that gleefully celebrates female sexuality Stone plays Abigail Hill, a poor young woman who comes to work for Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) of England in the early 18th century thanks to her connection to Sarah Churchill (Rachel Weisz), Queen Anne's aide and Abigail's cousin
Sarah and Queen Anne are intimate in a carnal sense, and soon Abigail becomes Sarah's rival for the queen's affections Lanthimos portrays the royal court as a den of debauchery, where selfish sycophants compete to influence the unstable queen Like "Poor Coto," "The Favourite" is raunchy and often funny, but it is also a savage social satire that makes full use of excellent performances, including Oscar-winning Colman as the vulnerable but vindictive Queen Anne
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Marin Ireland was not recognized at any major film awards last year, but her performance in writer-director Laura Moss' take on the Frankenstein story rivals Stone's performance in "Poor Things" Ireland plays Dr Rose Casper, a hospital pathologist who avoids human interaction and conducts gruesome experiments in a room in her apartment using biological materials she sneaks home from work
When the biological material includes the recently deceased 5-year-old daughter of fellow nurse Celie Morales (Judy Reyes), Rose is confronted with the kind of family relationships she has kept at a distance Ireland and Reyes brilliantly play two very different women who unite in their goal of keeping this undead girl alive and who take cruel measures to further their scientific and maternal obsessions
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It's easy to forget that the iconic title character makes a brief appearance at the end of this sequel to James Whale's 1931 classic Frankenstein But before we get to that, there are plenty of oddities in this freewheeling sequel Elsa Lanchester, who plays the bride, plays a dual role as Mary Shelley and appears in a prologue that introduces the film as a continuation of the story Shelley wrote
Colin Clive and Boris Karloff return as Henry Frankenstein and his monstrous creation, respectively, and are joined by Ernest Thesiger as Dr Pretorius, Henry's dim-witted mentor Dr Pretorius presses Henry to create a monstrous companion, but he himself seems to have no qualms about the horrific experiment A distorted and bizarre take on the Frankenstein story, "The Poor Thing" can trace its origins here
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There have been viral posts online about the similarities between "Poor Things" and cult director Frank Henenlotter's favorite sexploitation Frankenhooker, as its title suggests, is more vulgar and less thoughtful than the already quite naughty Poor Things But there is more to the film than shock value, as a psycho suburban basement-dweller concocts a resurrected version of his fiancée from body parts taken from a murdered prostitute
Jeffrey Franken (James Lorinz) is delirious, but he is also just a lovesick wretch who misses his fiancée and has tender feelings for her while drugging the prostitutes he picks up with "super crack" Henenlotter weaves together deadpan humor and grotesque set pieces to provide a unique experience that proves its influence in unexpected ways
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Like Godwin Baxter in "Poor Things," Baron Frankenstein, played by Peter Cushing, undertakes a brain transplant experiment in this second installment of Hammer Studios' acclaimed Frankenstein series Moving beyond Mary Shelley's original story, allowing writer Jimmy Sangster and director Terence Fisher to immerse themselves in more esoteric gothic tastes, Frankenstein attempts to remove a paralyzed man's brain and transplant it into a reconstructed body that will allow him to live a normal life
For Frankenstein, who is often portrayed as arrogant and unsympathetic, this motivation is surprisingly altruistic, and Cushing takes the opportunity to give Frankenstein even more depth The Creature's eventual transformation into a man-eating monster is at once terrifying and sadly poignant, setting the tone for future Hammer Frankenstein films that blend tragedy and terror
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