Atousa Mashfiq’s criticism of the film Poor Things by Lanthimos.
The Iranian-American writer of Eileen finds no appeal in the story of Poor Things.
According to Cinemadrame, Atousa Mashfiq criticizes the film Poor Things (directed by Yorgos Lanthimos) while it was reported yesterday that the Greek director is working on an adaptation of My Year of Rest and Relaxation based on her novel.
My Year of Rest and Relaxation tells the story of an unnamed young narrator from a wealthy family who recently graduated in art history from Columbia University. In her first years of college, she loses her parents—her father dies of cancer, and her mother’s alcoholism and mental illness lead to her suicide. The narrator then turns to drugs to ease her pain.
In a recent interview with I Rabbits Foot, Mashfiq states that all she can say about Lanthimos’s adaptation is that Margot Robbie has joined the project as a producer, and the lead role will be played by either Robbie or Emma Stone.
When asked whether she is interested in Lanthimos’s Baroque cinema, the writer responds that she likes The Lobster but finds Poor Things unappealing: “Do I enjoy stories about children with female bodies discovering their sexual orientation? They are not my first choice.”
Poor Things tells the story of a woman named Bella Baxter, played by Emma Stone, whose unborn baby’s brain is transplanted into her after a suicide attempt. Several men throughout the film attempt to have sexual relations with her. Mashfiq is not the only critic of the story, written by Tony McNamara and Lanthimos. Before her, Zoe Williams, a critic for The Guardian, wrote: “Will people see this film as a story about pleasure and urgency, or, psychologically, a pedophilic fantasy?”
