Directed by:
Yorgos LanthimosCinematography:
Robbie RyanCast:
Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz, Emma Stone, James Smith, Mark Gatiss, Nicholas Hoult, Basil Eidenbenz, Anthony Dougall, James Melville, Timothy Innes, Joe Alwyn (more)Plots(1)
Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) may occupy the throne but it is her co-dependent, Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz), who makes most of the Monarch's decisions, leaving The Queen to get on with eating pineapples and racing ducks. When Lady Sarah's cousin, Abigal Masham (Emma Stone), arrives and is given work at the palace as a servant she quickly endears herself to The Queen and threatens Lady Sarah's status as the favourite. Lady Sarah cannot hide her jealously and a bitter and petty rivalry ensues as both ladies vie for The Queen's affections. (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment)
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Reviews (10)
If you are into Lanthimos’s peculiar poetics and stylistic whims, The Favourite will very possibly be the most entertaining film of the year for you. Though the division into chapters and some of the visual deformations leave a dodgy impression, the absurdly escalating conflicts, the play with the setting and the lightning, the performances and the music are so good that the film flows as smoothly as if it had been directed by Kubrick himself. It is very nice that in the age of Hollywood feminism there are so many Oscar contenders where female characters are uneducated, indecisive or unbearably manipulative bitches. 85%
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This could have been a costume drama with a plot about getting closer to luxury, which is inherently linked to the subgenre of court intrigues. Perhaps that is why this story of an unhealthy trio of ladies is enriched with complete openness, such that there is no shortage of vulgarity at the local court, a lot of sex and vomiting, and a great deal of talk about both. Sure, I get it, maybe it was actually like that at the time, maybe this was the artistic intent. And yet it makes The Favourite less a sophisticated picture and more an unpleasant experience that's hard to shake off. That said, the main trio is played so well that it left me speechless.
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I feel that filming through a fisheye lens is not very appropriate for a historical costume film. Nor did I like the way the story was peppered with really vulgar language, which evokes the present rather than a bygone era. However, the screenplay is spot on about intrigue and devious manipulation at the royal court during the reign of Queen Anne of Great Britain is almost without fault. Most of all, however, I have to praise the excellent performances of Olivia Colman and Emma Stone. Both ladies obviously put their all into it, playing the roles of those unlikeable women incredibly convincingly. (70%)
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Like all of Lanthimos’s previous films, The Favourite is a description of a bizarre struggle for the favor of authority and a deliberately distorted caricature of human society, defined by a constant struggle for power. As a bonus, however, this new films is also a serious historical drama with an conservative narrative arc (one can feel that fragmentary storytelling lover Efthymis Filippo is not involved in this). The Favourite tries to be a venomous and scathing period piece, where (toxic) relationships between women play a leading role, while men are ephebic fools and horny idiots. The central trio is a joy to watch mainly due to their great acting and the sparkling mischief of mutual interactions. Unfortunately, over time, the film, which is a bit violently cut into chapters, becomes what it is at its core - a sparse, monotonous story with a predictable subtext. While until now Lanthimos has always been able to misalign and surprise viewers, to troll them with something that may contradict the laws of logic, but effectively comments on the arbitrariness of our existence, The Favourite is in some ways conventional. Although it contains typical choreographic excesses, it flows according to genre rules. It is dirtier, more vulgar, more crooked (Robbie Ryan FTW), sometimes effectively elliptical, but sometimes cruelly literal (the rabbits). In part, I support her, but she also did not stimulate me in any way, did not upset me, and she did not make me think. Yeah, humanity is a bunch of degenerates and really destroys character. We know, Jorgos. But I didn't feel it this time. For the first time ever, I left Lanthimos's film slightly apathetic rather than morbidly exacerbated.
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I'm sorry, but I couldn't get on the right wave to enjoy The Favourite practically until the end. Although all three actresses act great (Emma Stone’s grimaces versus Rachel Weisz's stone face), but what it's all for when I was raising my eyebrows in astonishment regarding the bizarre things that were unfolding on screen, and I was wondering what's wrong with me, that the surprisingly cringey humor doesn't make me laugh like everyone else (or some other people) in the movie theatre. The impressively strange camera reminded me of Juraj Herz's films (mainly the fisheye is like the one from The Cremator); however, it didn't improve the experience much. The film seemed too long to me after about an hour and although I was wondering what would happen next, nothing actually happened that I didn't expect. That’s too bad.
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