The Favourite

The Favourite

Let me start by saying I have not been a Lanthimos fan. I watched The Lobster for 20 minutes and stopped, and didn't want to see Sacred Deer just from seeing the trailer. This film, though, perhaps because he didn't write it, which constrained some of his worst inclinations, produced something that will live for decades in the annals of truly great cinema. Unless you are into superheros, explosions, splatter and martial arts as your only movie fare; and if you appreciate cinematic art in its many expressions (acting, music, plot, layered symbolism, cinematography, direction, etc.), then this is a film that will stick with you for awhile. Finally, I want to say a word about two things ( NOT spoilers):1) the ending that a few people seem to be dissing in thier reviews and 2) a few disparaging comments about historical accuracy. In my viewing the ending was perfect. The Queen remains the Queen no matter who fights for or wins the place of Favourite. Winning is not what it looks to be from afar. Is who you become in getting to the pinnacle who you really want to be? And take a look at Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough in Wikipedia, which references her letters reporting the Queen's lesbian bent. Was this out of spite? Who knows, but it's there. One of the only artistic licenses on historical fact that I could find was the tea and horse incident, which served to further the intensity of the drama. Go see this movie as soon as you can. It's going to have some serious attention in award season.

I will admit, when I started the film I really did enjoy the first 30 or so minutes. The acting and the cinematography was really good, as was the humor and imagery. Unfortunately, after an hour or so the humor dissipated and the story took a straight faced and awkward turn full of gluttony, yelling, vomiting, excessive language, weird sexual encounters, and just a lot of filth (literally and figuratively). Admittedly, the acting was quite good but at what cost? All of the characters were very unlikable.. By the end of the film it merely felt pretentious, gross, whiny, and boring. Weirdness and taboos don't bother me in movies at all. What bothers me is when it's handled in such an uneven way.

I saw The Favourite because (a) Emma Stone is in it, and (b) it was highly reviewed on iMDB. My current hypothesis is that the Russians have hijacked the iMDB site, and heavily upvoted this movie in an attempt to lure the American public to see it, and bore us into a mind-numbed complacency. This two-hour snoozefest explores in excruciating detail the interplay between three wretched women, each of who is vying to grab or hold on to power. It sets the record for the slowest-moving, most tedious power plays in movie history -- and, amazingly, the payoff is that nothing is resolved in the end! And in case you could possibly have missed the ham-handed symbolism, the rabbits and slow-motion dancing naked eunich represent the poor working class whose souls are crushed under the feet of the bourgeoisie, who are focused on their own selfish whims. I've seen many movies that show that the abuse of power is evil and damaging. The only additional lesson from this film is that it can also be boring.

I was able to see this movie about 4 months before its theatrical release in Switzerland at the first day of the Zurich Film Festival 2018. For preparation of yesterdays screening I recently watched two of Yorgos Lanthimos' previous films: "The Lobster" and "The Killing Of A Sacred Deer". Both movies are very special in their own way so I didn't expect from "The Favourite" to be a normal 18th-whatever-century movie. Usually I'm not a big fan of historical/costume movies like this. But what about "The Favourite"? I have to admit that I was unaware of my feelings for the movie shortly after the end. Yeah it was "good", but was there more than that? A day later I'm still not 100% sure because I still think about it but I noticed that hour after hour I like this movie more. The story is really great and there are a lot of wicked but also hilarious scenes. The three main actresses are definitely the highlight of the movie: Rachel Weisz is amazing and of course, Olivia Colman is outstanding. I wouldn't complain if she gets nominated for an Oscar next year, but can we talk about Emma Stone? Yes, I'm a fan, but I really think her performance is the best in the whole movie, maybe it's because she also plays the most interesting character. I definitely have to see "The Favourite" again when it comes to the cinema sometime in January 2019 to make my final verdict. Until then I give 8 out of 10 and hopefully more next time.

This is not my usual type of film but the trailer intrigued me so I thought I'd give it a whirl and I am glad that I did. Good direction with a great script. The actors clearly had fun with the witty dialogue they were given in this dark period drama about one-up-man-ship. Without giving anything away, to begin with I wasn't impressed with the ending and just thought, 'What - is that it?" but the more I thought about it and digested it - the more I realised just how perfect it was. This film is well worth a watch.

Enjoyed the acting, dark photography, period costumes, etc. Fascinating to watch the relationships develop with the bi-polar Queen Ann. But the enigmatically abrupt ending was a real downer. The writers needed to show the skill and creativity to conclude this otherwise fine film with a more satisfying ending.

I was expecting better. The film has some bones to which a good movie could have been made. I believe in the 3 main actresses and the general idea for the story. The costumes and sets looked great. But a lot of the storytelling came off as pretentious, over the top, confusing, boring or dumb. I didn't understand the point to a lot of the movie and after reading some of the reviews, even the positive ones and ones with spoilers, it appears I'm not the only one who couldn't explain a lot of the movie. I agree with the common note that the music is annoying. There were a couple scenes where they replayed the same couple rhythmic notes over and over and over and over again. And it was to no obvious purpose unless their point was to piss me off and distract me. Dunkirk has some similar musicnear the beginning. But in Dunkirk it reflected the building tension of the scene and sped up. In the Favourite it felt like a poor imitation which didn't understand why it worked in Dunkirk. Most of the time the score was fine. But the 2 moments with the repeating rhythm were difficult to overlook. The use of fowl language and gratuity didn't bother me. But too often I couldn't understand the overall purpose or goal or insinuations of other moments. At times I wondered what exectly we were supposed to think was really going on. But given that at times the film wasn't afraid to gratuitously say what was going on, it made it rather difficult to suppose the less literal take on events was the justifiable presumption. Many of the wide fish-eye camera Angles were also distracting. And the pacing felt slow. I think more daringly odd choices typically work when they are added more subtly than what is seen in The Favourite. To put it simply: the style and content were too prevalent and confusing for me to sufficiently get invested in a good story or a good movie. It's not my Fovourite.

Throughout this movie characters vomit. While I wouldn't say that it will make you do the same, I certainly found it deadly dull. And pretentious. The story has some basis in history. It takes place near the end of the reign of England's Queen Anne, around 1711-1713, during which time the War of Spanish Succession-the war between England and France that is mentioned on occasion-was drawing near its end. The Queen's husband, Prince George of Denmark, had died in 1708, after having gotten her pregnant 17 times - enough to justify switching romantic interest away from men for any woman. Sarah, the Duchess of Marlborough, who had already managed to become the Queen's friend, and-at least in this movie-something more than that as well, has come to exert real influence over the Queen because of her willingness to play to the monarch's desire for affection from other women. As the movie opens, Abigail Hill, a distant relative of Sarah's, arrives at court with the hope of getting preferment there. She sees how Sarah receives favor from the Queen, and decides that she can play that game as well if it will allow her to advance at court. Lesbian intrigue follows. The costumes are fine, there is some intriguing lighting, and early in the movie some different types of lenses provide unusual shots. The acting, to the extent that the women in these roles get to act, is all fine. But, for me, this was a succession of too-often unexplained scenes and strange behavior that I found pretentious in the extreme. I can understand that, if they have to consume a steady diet of play-by-the-numbers action movies, film critics get excited over something different and not formulaic. But for me different and not predictable does not, in itself, produce a movie interesting enough to hold my attention for two hours. I found myself nodding off on occasion-and it was only the middle of the afternoon-because none of it held my interest. Nor would I say that is movie strikes a blow for lesbians. The characters aren't interesting, so you don't really care about their relationships, which are presented as manipulative rather than romantic. The Queen never gets to say that the relationships she has with women are more fulfilling, or at least less stressful, than the marriage she had with Prince George. I just didn't see why the director wanted to resurrect this element of history in this way.

Enthralling from the very beginning and bursting with enthusiasm, this endlessly funny period piece, mixed with a ravishing love triangle, is Lanthimos at his most accessible, all while maintaining the mordacious social commentary and absurdist tone that made him such a phenomenon. Needless to say, "The Favourite" is marvelously shot, capturing with elegance the grandeur of its setting through gorgeous steadicam and extravagant wide angles, but what really sets it apart are the characters that are shown against it. Arguably the most fascinating showcase of acting from each of its three leads, the dynamics of the trio are effervescent, chock-full of disdainful side-glances, sharp smiles and lascivious touches, making every man look like a disposable accessory. Weisz is ever caustic as Sarah Churchill, the queen's confidant and lover, who actually rules the kingdom through her, and Stone is ravishing as Abigail, Sarah's cousin, who plays a naïve, gleeful servant, but secretly will spare no efforts in order to become the queen's new favourite. However, it is Colman who steals the spotlight, through her mesmerizing performance of Queen Anne. Infantile and broken, impulsive and lustful, needy and erratic all at once, she takes credit for almost every one of the most iconic moments of the film, which are several, through her delicious tantrums and hilarious excesses, but most notably, through a few long, mathematically precise close-ups, during which her expression changes so subtly, yet so richly, that she conveys an extensive array of emotions, disarming the viewer with desperate loneliness and melancholy. All of that innovating and beguiling experience could never have been made possible without an incredibly solid script, whose segmented structure and whimsically titled chapters make the audience anticipate, with an expectant smile, what kind of wicked schemes and betrayals will come next. While it is riveting and lively until two thirds well into the plot, some of the viewers might be left disappointed at how it becomes hopeless and dark. The sudden change of pace, however, is deliberate and calculated, leading to a visually unforgetable ending scene, as each of the characters finally realize the inescapable consequences of their extravagant behaviours. Ultimately, "The Favourite" is an admirable confluence of talent, whose likes mainstream cinema only glimpses rarely, and that will leave audiences marveled and eager for more.