Reviewer: Julie Lynn Hayes

Poor Things

Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe) is a brilliant and scarred scientist who discovers a woman (Emma Stone) who has just drowned herself. To his horror, he discovers she is pregnant. In an unorthodox move, he removes the brain of the infant and transplants it into the woman, saving her life. He names her Bella, and watches as she must re-develop from an infant, despite having the body of a grown woman. Godwin’s assistant Max (Ramy Youssef) falls in love with Bella and they become engaged. All is well until Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo) comes along, and leads Bella down paths she has never imagined, opening the world to her.

Poor Things is a creative re-imagining of the Frankenstein story. In this case, the scientist is the one with

scars, the result of his father’s direct experimentation upon his son. The cinematography is very lovely and well done, the acting superb, especially Mark Ruffalo as the villain Wedderburn. And yet… and yet… I found myself very disturbed because at the end of the day, Bella, despite having a woman’s body, had the mind of a child, so what happened felt… wrong.  I just couldn’t help but feel disturbed that she was having sex.

Be warned, there is a ton of sex in this movie. A TON OF SEX. I understand what the director was going for. The independence of women, the ability to control their own sex lives, to not need men to control them. I don’t have a problem with the prostitution aspect, that doesn’t bother me. It’s just the idea that intellectually and emotionally, Bella is a child. Maturity does not happen that quickly. Plus, although many will disagree, I didn’t see Emma Stone’s performance as the tour de force some have suggested it was. I thought her performance rather awkward at times, and stiff. I would never watch this again, spend another two and a half hours on it. It’s a matter of taste. Poor Things was just not to mine. I’ll give this film 3 Stars.

Dead Shack

Jason (Matthew Nelson-Mahood) is invited to go camping with his friend Colin’s (Gabriel LaBelle) family, including Colin’s sister Summer (Lizzie Boys), their dad Roger (Donavan Stinson) and Roger’s girlfriend Lisa (Valerie Tian). They end up in a cheap cabin in the middle of nowhere. The teens are pretty free to do as they want while the so-called adults get drunk. They wander through the woods and discover what appears to be an abandoned house, with a lot of junk cars on the property. But there is more here than meets the eye as they quickly discover this neighbor (Lauren Holly) is definitely not the neighborly type.

This film combines horror and humor in a tale of cannibals and zombies. It has some funny moments,

including the drunken father who is too focused on drinking, his young girlfriend, and being his kid’s friend to be the leader they need in a crisis. One has to wonder how Lauren Holly ended p here in a suit that’s a cross between dominatrix and welder, but that’s anyone’s guess. Maybe she is friends with the director or something. Not the best, not the worst, but not a complete waste of time either. It’s only 81 minutes, and I’m fine with that. I’ll give this film 3 Stars.