Review of The Favourite (2018) by Glenn G — 27 Nov 2018

ALL TEA, ALL SHADE - My Review of THE FAVOURITE (4 Stars).

I've never been a fan of the "Tea And Corsets" genre of films. The problems (and speech patterns) of the 1% who live in castles and bask in their own entitlement never did it for me. Watching people in frilly outfits tut-tutting about while the audience knowingly titters away with smug self-satisfaction has always made me want to go watch "the game" at Barney's Beanery instead...which is always a terrible idea. Leave it to director Yorgos Lanthimos (THE LOBSTER, THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER) and writers Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara to turn this genre on its ears and produce an outrageous, so-so wrong, scabrous piece of agitprop cinema which feels like BARRY LYNDON threw up all over BOUND, took a dump on ALL ABOUT EVE, all whilst deleting every download of DOWNTON ABBEY and peeing on DANGEROUS LIAISONS.

The film stars Emma Stone as the seemingly innocent Abigail, who in the early 18th century, arrives at the castle door of an ailing and mentally unstable Queen Anne (Olivia Colman), whose affairs (especially a war with France) get handled by her "favourite", the tough, hardened Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz). Because they're related, Sarah employs Abigail as a scullery maid, a far cry from Abigail's former stature, but a gig is a gig. Faster than you can say "Margo Channing better watch her back", Abigail usurps Sarah's position as "the favourite".

Busy dealing with a Parliament whose opposing sides have their own nefarious ways of handling the war, Sarah neglects the Queen, leaving Abigail the chance to slyly worm her way into the Queen's dark inner circle. These machinations include the wonderful push/pull of Lord Marlborough (Mark Gatiss) and Harley (a hilarious performance by Nicholas Hoult) as well as the hilariously physical courtship of Masham (Joe Alwyn), who can't resist Abigail's charms, which as played by Stone are charms of the nasty, ill-intentioned, and vile variety.

I won't spoil the surprises, of which there are many, but suffice it to say, sexuality, rants, and double crosses play a large part in the story. It's not perfect. It's often repetitive and Lanthimos' cinematographer, the talented Robbie Ryan (AMERICAN HONEY) overdoes the use of the fish-eye lens to the point where it CLOCKWORK ORANGE'd me to death. The score by frequent Lanthimos collaborator, Johnnie Burn, who once again favors bombast over subtlety, can get annoying at times, but it's appropriately as in-your-face as the film itself. I also applaud the nice touch of including Elton John's early, harpsichord-laden "Skyline Pigeon" over the closing credits.

None of this matters, however, when you have three actors who know exactly how to fit into the Lanthimos' vision. Both Weisz and Colman have done stellar work with this director before, so it's no surprise that they're great. Colman has a field day with her outrageous attack on her role, while Weisz's curt line deliveries and "I've got a huge dick" butch posturing will easily make her THE lesbian icon for the ages. Meanwhile, Stone relishes her chance to play sociopath who claws her way back to her former social position. She's hateful and awful and has the best side eye I've ever seen. Just watch her get into a carriage as she looks back on her enemy. Of course, she suffers her share of abuse and battering throughout, in case you thought this film lacked morality of any kind, but an argument can be made that a lack of morals is the only way to survive in this wicked world. Lanthimos goes all arty with a final overlapping shot of such Ken Russell proportions, that I marveled at its ambiguity while just basking in its crazy pants vision.

Lanthimos remains an acquired taste at best, but THE FAVOURITE falls in line with the nihilistic world view he has previously explored. This time, however, the comedy instead of the horror, takes center stage, making this his most "commercial" film yet. Sometimes a made up nasty word was enough to elicit gasps from the audience, and I can't wait for them to enter our lexicon. You'll know them when you hear them. I still don't care about the Castle Crowd, but at least this film made me laugh when I wasn't doing spit-takes....and this movie should launch a thousand Olivia Colman memes...and rightly so.