Poor Things scored a surprise victor for Best Picture — Musical or Comedy at the 2024 Golden Globes, beating out heavy favorite Barbie. Director Yorgos Lanthimos accepted the award on behalf of the cast, who he thanked after making sure to shout out how excited he was to talk to Bruce Springsteen, who was also in attendance at Sunday night’s ceremony.
Poor Things centers around Emma Stone’s unapologetically unhinged character Bella Baxter being revived in more ways than one. The film, adapted from Alasdair Gray’s 1992 novel, tells a tale of daring freedom, experiments in emotion, and extensive sexual exploration. Lanthimos’ cocktail of sci-fi elements from Lovecraftian horror, Gothic fiction, and Frankenstein helped the film secure the film its Best Picture prize.
Poor Things was nominated alongside Ben Affleck’s Air, Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers, and Todd Haynes’ May December. At the core of the film’s creation rested an intrinsic need for courage, which functions as a thematic thread throughout all of the nominated films in one way or another.