Poor Things: New Yorgos Lanthimos film receives ‘applause’ and is hailed ‘best of the year’

Yorgos Lanthimos’s new film received huge “applause” upon its first screening at the Venice Film Festival.

Emma Stone takes centre stage in Poor Things, the latest release from the director behind Dogtooth, The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer, which many are calling “the best film of the year”.

Following its debut screening on Friday (1 September), Sharon Waxman, founder and CEO of TheWrap, said journalists in attendance “broke out in applause” as the end credits rolled.

“A delight to see Yorgos Lanthimos at the peak of mad creativity and flair,” Waxman wrote, adding: “You will want to see Poor Things with Emma Stone way out on a limb. Morning press audience broke out in applause.”

Elsewhere on X/Twitter, @theatomreview wrote: “Magnificent! Yorgos Lanthimos’s greatest film. A quirky, engaging story about second chances that’ll definitely turn you on. This isn’t just another movie, it’s one of the best sci-fi fantasies ever!”

Meanwhile, @lnfinitestarboy added: “A brilliant baroque vision by Yorgos Lanthimos – one of the best films of the year” while @MarlowNYC wrote: Poor Things might be the best film I’ve seen so far this year. Emma Stone is extraordinary.”

Stone previously worked with Lanthimos on The Favourite, which won Olivia Colman Best Actress in 2019, and now the La La Land actor is being touted for a potential second Oscar.

Poor Things, adapted by Tony McNamara from Alasdair Gray’s 1992 novel of the same name, follows Stone’s Bella Baxter, who is brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe).

Mark Ruffalo, Ramy Youssef, Jerrod Carmichael and Christopher Abbott also star in the film, which will be released in the uK on 8 December, and the UK and Ireland on 12 Jauary 2024.

The film will receive its UK premiere at BFI London Film Festival in October.

Writer McNamara was the mind behind Hulu series The Great, which received an untimely cancellation earlier this week.