If you’ve seen “Poor Things,” you know that Nathan Fielder’s assessment of Emma Stone’s willingness to give a role her all is completely correct. Yorgos Lanthimos’ stunning, Oscar-winning film — which earned Stone her second Academy Award after winning her first in 2017 — casts Stone as Bella Baxter, a woman reborn with an infant’s brain inside an adult bodt who must re-learn how to exist in the world. Put simply, Stone’s physicality is stunning. From her walk that mimics an actual infant to the way she eats and acts in public, completely unashamed of herself and her presence, Stone’s Bella is extraordinary, and it’s a testament to Stone’s shamelessness — in a good way. Despite facing stiff competition in the best actress category, it’s ultimately unsurprising that Stone came away victorious.
This is to say nothing of Stone’s similarly fearless performance in the home renovation satire “The Curse.” It’s incredibly different from “Poor Things,” but Stone makes her character, Whitney Siegel, so incredibly awful and off-putting that she actually becomes fascinating. The daughter of New Mexico slumlords who very clearly hates her husband Asher (Fielder), Whitney is a bratty, mean, despicable person, and Stone leans into her worst qualities in an almost gleeful way. Between “The Curse” and “Poor Things,” Stone has spent the last year or so proving that she’s one of the most versatile and bold performers in Hollywood — and her next project with Lanthimos, “Kinds of Kindness,” probably features yet another all-star turn from Stone.