Showing On 29 April, 1, 2 May
Monday 6pm, Wednesday 4pm and Thursday 6pm
Watch The Trailer
Storyline (warning: spoilers)
From filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos and producer Emma Stone comes the incredible tale and fantastical evolution of Bella Baxter (Stone), a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe). Under Baxter's protection, Bella is eager to learn. Hungry for the worldliness she is lacking, Bella runs off with Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), a slick and debauched lawyer, on a whirlwind adventure across the continents. Free from the prejudices of her times, Bella grows steadfast in her purpose to stand for equality and liberation. Matt Neal describes this movie as a steampunk coming-of-age fairy tale, mixed with an occasionally disturbing commentary on the patriarchy and a frequently hilarious exploration of morals and social conventions. It’s bizarre, it’s laugh-out-loud funny and it’s wonderfully weird, yet it’s also thought-provoking and confronting.
Lanthimos and cinematographer Robbie Tyan give us fish-eye lenses, odd angles, plenty of zooms, pinhole views and every other weird trick they can think of to throw us off balance and show an unfamiliar world in which they can present some sadly familiar problems. It’s wonderfully unsettling, and makes the incredible sets and stunning production design even more otherworldly.
Equally otherworldly is Stone as Bella. Her journey from infantile naivety to mature self-awareness is strangely powerful and powerfully strange, and Stone never misses a step along the way. It’s a physical role, almost robotic in places, but Stone never stops finding the humanity in the absurdity. Ruffalo is also excellent as the bon vivant brought to his knees by Bella. He is an equally flashy performance, and Ruffalo shows off his knack for over-the-top comedy. Bella’s journey of self-discovery is a strange one and sometimes a challenging one for the audience. This movie has themes of horror and gore, and there is strong sexual content and nudity - some of the scenes may be confronting for some movie goers.