a review of 可怜的东西

Lanthimos definitely amps up some of the more grotesque aspects from the book, as well as the devoting more screen time vs. page time to the depiction of Bella's sexual-libertine escapades. But I basically expected that going in, and I think Lanthimos' direction and Emma Stone's performance find the character's dignity and agency amidst all that. There's some very specific choices made towards the end that make it into something maybe a bit more safely escapist than the more ambiguous (even self-lacerating) ending of the book, but it does manage to communicate most of the same ideas in an altered form.