Did you watch the Oscars last night? I tried to. We don’t have cable, so I was trying to tune in on Hulu when the program was well on its way to the end, but I just kept getting little clips, and I was more interested in the movies than which designer could make the most outlandish dress for which actress. There were some doozies last night, I thought.
I still haven’t seen KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, though the book was utterly powerful. I could hardly put the book down, so I’m going to watch that movie soon. I was kind of waiting until I could watch it for less than $20 on Prime . We’ll see. Thank goodness, finally a Native American/Indigenous American actress was nominated for an Oscar, and the film had several other nominations. I can’t wait to see it. I heard so much about Lily Gladstone’s performance, that decided to quit trying to watch the ceremony and watch the movie in which Emma Stone beat out Lily Gladstone.
So, I watched a stream-able film that won best actress among other things: Emma Stone in POOR THINGS. I also want to say that I was doing this alone because Tom was shopping for some parts he needs online (at least that’s what he said he was doing) and didn’t want to watch any show. Maybe he feared I wanted to watch the Oscars, in which he has less than zero interest, and figured if he said he was busy, I’d feel free to indulge in the Academy Awards.
I watched the preview for POOR THINGS. It looked disturbing, but I bought it for five bucks and clicked “play movie” anyway. Whoa. Yeah, disturbing. Powerful? Yes! I kind of can’t stop thinking about it. The possessive nature of what some people mistake as love. An innocent discovery of oppression of women. Ways to fight back. Liberation and kindness. What emotion means and what can dull its power. Discovery, discovery, discovery. Such an odd and creepy premise: the brain of a child in an adult woman’s body, placed there as an experiment which resulted in a whole bunch of pain and tragedy until it didn’t anymore. And of course, the twists in the plot could have gone even more awry if this weren’t a movie. Lots of naked bodies and lots of sex, so if you’re easily offended, this is not the movie to watch, but it is powerfully-thought provoking and Emma Stone deserves an Oscar. But I might update this when I watch Lily. POOR THINGS is called a “black comedy” based on Frankenstein, but I can’t say it ever made me laugh. Maybe once. Mostly I was gasping when I suppose it could have been funny. At one point, Tom came out of his office and said, “What in the world are you watching?” Not a movie to make you laugh and calm you down before sleep.
The political mood in our country is even more disturbing than this movie. Way more disturbing. How sad is that? That probably deserves the energy of a blog post more than movies do, but I’m not up to that challenge just yet. Stay tuned.
Another great blog! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks, Roger. I’m still pondering this story and its creepiness, so I appreciate the response.