10 Actors Who Just Gave Their Best Performance Ever

Adaptations of Alasdair Gray's work don't come along often (or at all really), never mind one helmed by master of the familiar surreal Yorgos Lanthimos. But we get both in Poor Things, and an all-time career best from Emma Stone to boot.

Immersed in an uncanny alternative reality from the get, the film shows us Bella Baxter's (Stone) origins at the hands of Frankenstein-type Dr Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe); "God" for short. As Bella comes to possess her faculties and desires, she seeks out foreign lands and embarks on a liberating sexcapade, gaining her worldly education in the process.

It is a film full of capital-P Performances, and while it seems a shame to choose just one there could be no Poor Things without Emma Stone. She plays every stage of Bella's development, from pre-linguistic fool to learned lady, without a trace of the teen comedy star we once knew - and frequently manages it with barely a stitch of clothing on her.

Lanthimos, Gray, the cinematographer and the makeup/wardrobe departments all have something to answer for in the complete realisation of her character, but Stone alone makes an art of comedic misinterpretation, and pulls off a full-body performance only Barry Keoghan can rival. The Golden Globes agree, with Stone landing Best Actress in the musical/comedy category - her first since 2017's La La Land.