Review of The Favourite (2018) by Joe K — 19 Dec 2018

Shady ladies. Set in the 18th century, this is about Anne, Queen of Great Britain (Olivia Colman). Her closest friend (Rachel Weisz) is always in her ear, doing most of the legwork running the country.

When a new girl (Emma Stone) enters the picture, personal politics may be in for a shakeup. Now this wasn't one that I was overly excited about. Stuffy period pieces from this time period have never really been my thing, and on top of that, I really haven't been a big fan of director Yorgos Lanthimos; the critics love him because he's undeniably got talent, but I just don't think that the films he makes are all that accessible.

I had to see this because it is such a heavy Oscar favorite (no pun intended), and I did approach this with as open of a mind as possible. Well, I'm not really disappointed in this, but it is exactly what I thought it was going to be.

Now to start out on some positives, if this type of movie is your bag, I think you may stand a pretty good shot of enjoying this. All of the acting is quality, and I think if there is one big standout in this, it is Olivia Colman as Queen Anne.

I think she's a lock for an Oscar nomination, and yeah, she deserves it, as her performance is infused with emotions and physicality. The craft in the filmmaking is there, and that was a highlight for me.

At the same time though, Lanthimos manages to film these ladies at a lot of unflattering low angles, and I'm not really certain of the underlying reason for that. He also shoots a lot of shots from a fisheye lens, which gave me headaches at points.

It does give the film a unique flavor to it, but of course, my issues with Lanthimos have never been with his abilities. I think that out of his library that I've seen, this is probably his most approachable film, because people are acting like real people.

Cruel people, but still people. Like I said, this isn't really my thing. This did not change my mind about period pieces where pasty white people wear tall wigs, and I never had a jumping on point with any of these characters.

It doesn't have anything to do with it being female led, I was onboard with that, it is more the fact that everybody in this is just so crappy to one another. I feel like they all deserved some sort of comeuppance, and I was never really rooting for one person over the other.

I think you should make up your own mind for this, but it's not for me.