Poor Things — Yorgos Unbound

Emma Stone plays Bella Baxter, a Victorian woman resurrected from the dead with an infant's brain by a mad-scientist surgeon (Willem Dafoe, doing unusually tender work). Bella grows up at adult speed and goes looking for experience. Yorgos Lanthimos, working with cinematographer Robbie Ryan, makes the movie in his most visually maximalist register — fisheye lenses, dreamy pastels, steampunk Lisbon.

You will either love this film or find it insufferable. I loved it. Stone gives what may be the year's most complete physical performance — she actually acts with her gait, moving differently as Bella's neurological age progresses. Mark Ruffalo, as the cad lawyer Duncan Wedderburn, is uproarious. The film is a meditation on female self-possession, dressed up as a comedy, wearing a big hat.

Playing at Cineplex Varsity & VIP, Scotiabank Theatre, Imagine Guelph, Landmark Edmonton City Centre, and TIFF Bell Lightbox.