Watched this in Curzon with some friends, on the 21st of January, 2024.
Such a good movie! It’s a sort of Frankenstein myth where a scientist (Dafoe) comes across a woman who committed suicide, and transplants the brain of her unborn baby into her head. Bella (Stone), has the mind of a toddler, and the movie is essentially a coming of age one - she develops motor skills and speech, discovers sex, and goes on a trip with a guy (Ruffalo) in a fantastical alternate Earth.
I loved the sets they used, the architecture and colours, the painted backdrops and CGI, the surrealism of it all blended with the stark realism.
Stone did a wonderful job of portraying Bella’s sophistication and innocence, the nuances of her expressions were incredible, and the other characters brought a lot of comedy as well.
I thought the brothel scenes were very similar to how sex work is portrayed in Becky Chambers’ Wayfarers - the normalisation and acceptance of it, and the sheer contrast by the stigmatisation and illegality in the modern world was incredible.
We sat around deconstructing it for almost an hour afterwards, the themes of optimism vs cynicism, the various philosophies, the character motivations, how the sex scenes (so so many) gave insight into the characters (like Bella’s childish pursuit of pleasure vs her wanting a deeper connection in the brothel, when she’s older, and how the only person who’s seen to go down on her is a fellow sex worker), the setting and landscapes, the territorial nature of powerful men, how the one guy was portrayed as dangerous while Ruffalo’s character was a harmless cad who blustered but didn’t hurt her.
Overall, a great watch.