The Favourite – Film Review

As a fan of ‘The Lobster’ I was curious what Yorgos Lanthimos would do with a period piece. Having Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz has two of the leads had me interested. Yargos is known for his eccentric films that have both a satirical quality that are both serious and intellectual. I appreciate what he does as a filmmaker and I feel that has films are ambitious and very personal. Though I am not huge on English period films — the fact it had such acclaim and recognition for being nominated in the Best Picture category, it has to be on my list to watch.

The film itself I found to be pretty straightforward, it was Mean Girls British edition. I liked the chemistry between Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz. It was fun to see them go back and forth and fight for the attention to the Queen played by Olivia Coleman. The LGBT aspect of the film isn’t known to be accurate but it did add the right element of drama that didn’t feel tasteless. There was a fair bit of a great comedy that came from this film that I particularly enjoyed. The abrasiveness of the jokes caught me off guard. Some of them were quite timely given the current #MeToo climate as well.

I like when she puts her tongue in me.

I thought that Rachel Weisz gave the best performance out of all 3 of the actresses. There was some strong subtly to how she was shaping the character that I quite appreciated. Emma Stone did what she does best with being charming without being obvious. Her English accent was good and didn’t feel poorly constructed. I would say one of the best things about the film is the Cinematography. The fisheye lens in a few scenes throughout the film was quite effective. It gave the film a bit of character and perspective. So many unique things there are to say about this film, even the typography and title credit sequence was very theatrical.

My only negatives with the film is that it felt a little long in length. There could have been a couple of scenes cut to shorten the runtime. The ending itself was very ambiguous for the viewer to interpret what was happening. In the current climate of how films can be so cliche and Oscar-baity without having any character, The Favourite more than makes up for that with having a satirical look at real life events in an eccentric film. I would definitely recommend to stream the film when it becomes available to digital platforms. This isn’t necessary to see in theaters.

8/10