The Favourite (Yorgos Lanthimos)

[Ezee E]

IMDB

[Pop Trash]

Wow. ** 1/2 stars Ezee? I'm curious to read your thoughts and also curious where you stand on Lanthimos' other films?

I've heard rumblings of this being an Oscar contender, but I'm skeptical. Not because I don't think it will be very good, more because I don't think Lanthimos' style will ever be Academy material.

[Spinal]

I'm voting 'yay', but quite honestly, I'm surprised at how little this affected me. Rachel Weisz is the film's strength. Olivia Colman is also quite good. Emma Stone probably hits the ceiling of her ability here and doesn't quite match the other two, in my opinion. But she's fine. The narrative is engaging to a certain degree. But it never reaches the electric level that Dogtooth, The Lobster, and even Sacred Deer do in various scenes and moments. As a wicked game of maneuvering and seduction, it pales in comparison to Dangerous Liaisons or Valmont. It's got period dresses and wigs, but it's not an especially beautiful movie. And I don't really understand the choice to use so much fish-eye lens.

The more I talk about it, the more I realize that Weisz, compelling as she is, is truly this film's saving grace, because I'm struggling to think of more positive things to say about it.

[Watashi]

The more I talk about it, the more I realize that Weisz, compelling as she is, is truly this film's saving grace, because I'm struggling to think of more positive things to say about it.

Uh, Spinal.

Horatio. Fastest Duck in the City.

[Spinal]

Could have used more duck. That's true.

[Ezee E]

I am pretty baffled that the critics are loving it so much. I can't say there's ever really a point in the movie where there's something tremendous going on. It's consistently clever and the one-up battle is neat to see, but I'm never shocked or wowed. I thought something interesting would happen outside of the area when Weisz falls off her horse, but even that's kind of glossed over.

[megladon8]

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie poster / banner that was as unpleasant to read as that.

Horrible styling with the text.

[Spinal]

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie poster / banner that was as unpleasant to read as that.

Horrible styling with the text.

It's used in the movie too. I can't explain why.

[Irish]

Yay, but with the same reservations held by Spinal and Ezee.

The dialogue is sharp and the scenarios are funny, but ultimately it never adds up. It might be a little too arch its own good.

I had trouble figuring out what went wrong. Two ideas:

- The Giant French War operates in the story like a MacGuffin, except it's never conceptualized in a meaningful way. It remains abstract and offstage. This is odd because some many plot beats depend on it. It's difficult---at least I find it difficult---to become emotionally involved in something I never see and can't imagine.

- The leads don't change and neither do their goals. They're the same from first scene to last. Things happen but they have no consequence. There are no reversals. For all of Yorg's labored mannerisms and intense effort, this is a pretty shallow movie---almost sitcom shallow.

[Pop Trash]

- The leads don't change and neither do their goals. They're the same from first scene to last. Things happen but they have no consequence. There are no reversals. For all of Yorg's labored mannerisms and intense effort, this is a pretty shallow movie---almost sitcom shallow.

I think the sympathies change and even the power dynamics change. Sympathies lie with Abigail initially, then to Queen Anne as she deteriorates, then with Sarah, finally Queen Anne is revealed to have more agency than the previous trajectory. It's a great script. I'm shocked at how much of it is apparently based on real events. I knew Queen Anne existed, but I thought the rest of it was just made up bullshit (and I was ok with that) especially since it has the tone of a farce. Kind of amazing that this is more factually accurate than BlacKkKlansman and that dude is still alive.

Fun fact: Winston Churchill was a direct descendant of Sarah Churchill.

Further reading:
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood...ory-queen-anne

[Wryan]

I believe the justification on the posters and in the movie is reflective of the archaic way of setting type in older documents, like perhaps the documents such royal systems would have used or in "newspapers" of the day.

I liked this a lot. I didn't find it as uproarious as some have, but the acting and writing are smashingly good.

[Peng]

Easily my favorite English-language Lanthimos, although this being the first film that he hasn't written feels like both strength and weakness, despite how its sensibility is still fully apiece of his filmography. His two earlier English films are bracingly original, but can't sustain that energy the whole way through (or, in the case of Sacred Deer, that original idea is a tad too troll-ish for a feature length for me). Being bounded, even lightly at that, to real history means a story is unified somewhat as a single story from beginning to end, where Lanthimos can pour in all his signature abrasive, deadpan style and tone at will.

On the other hand, and I'm not sure this is whether because the three actresses do so good a job or because basing this on real life (rather than starting whole from his usual allegorical concept) allows some real deep feelings to creep into the Lanthimos-land, I unexpectedly want something more from these characters. Colman, especially, shows such raw vulnerability in every single scene, without even once begging for sympathy, that I keep wishing for more down time between her and two 'favourites' amidst the delicious machinations, to see more of the human shades underneath; Weiz at least gets some intimacy early on, and a few wrenching scenes towards the end, but Colman's relationship with Stone, apart from the rabbit introduction, feel like it gets swallowed in back-and-forth too quickly. It feels frightening, frankly, to wish for more straight drama from a Lanthimos film, but here we are. At least the black comedy works so supremely, deliriously well in all its acidic barbs and images, with the actresses having the time of their lives delivering them, that I will be looking closely to reconcile my two contradictory feelings on rewatch. 8/10

[Dead & Messed Up]

I'll agree with others that I didn't find this particularly moving or engaging, but I really enjoyed the clean trajectories of the characters, how Abigail gains and loses our empathy, how the Queen sees royal politics as a sort of occasionally diverting lark while her lessers see it as deadly serious, and how, as bad as these games were for these characters, the dissolution of those games with the victory of one over the other only drags things further into the mud. There are no winners here, just variations on the desperate. I think it's a pretty tight script.

Also agree that the constant fish-eye is distracting. The most charitable read is that it's there to point up the inherent grotesquerie of this setting and these people, who are always at least a little bit distorted, and that tracks with the theme of how the characters get distorted in their desires to gain power. But the technique does ultimately feel a little too consistent, which makes it risk feeling meaningless (as Syndrome might say, when every shot's special, no shot is!). Not a bad idea in theory, but maybe could've been meted out more carefully?

I thought all three actresses did fantastic work (Weisz is the standout), and Hoult delighted me as a spiteful fop who's not above chucking someone down a hill. Even with Weisz as the standout, though, I think the best moments in the film are when Colman's Anne becomes briefly and horribly aware of how miserable she is. There's a shot about a third of the way into the film that just watches her face in the middle of a body politic discussion, and it holds, and it holds, and she doesn't do much with her face, but her eyes communicate so much: Here I am. What am I doing here? What is any of this for? I'm so lonely. I'm so alone. And there's no rescue.

Hell, maybe I did find it involving. Maybe just a little too intermittently.

[Lazlo]

[

Show Spoiler

On second viewing I found the dissolution Sarah and Anne's relationship to be quite devastating and emotional. Weisz' work in the scene close to the end where Anne won't open the door and Sarah stands in the dark hallway is just sublime. Really stood out to me on a second go-'round.

]

[Grouchy]

Except for the titles (I hate it when justified text is difficult to read) I found this film an aesthetic triumph - Lanthimos pushes the limits of how much a director's quirks can mess with the storytelling by making his fish eye lenses and pans as extreme as possible but it works because the setting is so baroque and uniquely ornamented. I was never taken out of the story by the director as I had been warned I would be. I loved the clear progression from a cautious enmity between the two women to all-around war, and how despite never seeing the King's poorer subjects it's clear throughout the story that they suffer the most.

I'm still lacking Vice and Green Book but this is my Favourite of the nominees so far by a very wide margin.

[Yxklyx]

I liked this. How can one person lose 17 children!

[MadMan]

I saw it in theaters, and I thought it was brutal, funny and rather engaging. However the third act kind of loses some of the film's momentum. The three main actresses were excellent.