In a way, director Yorgos Lanthimos is a more eccentric version of Tim Burton, which speaks volumes since Burton is notorious for glamorizing the strange, the ugly and the offbeat. With “Poor Things” (2023), the director finally embraces the sincere quirkiness of the protagonist with open arms.

The drama is set in a realistic yet fictional world in an 18th century England at war with France, with a feeble Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) as head of the state.