Ooh, Yorgos Lanthimos and your batshit, genre -defying film oeuvre. Part Peter Greenaway, part Blackadder, The Favourite is another bonkers example of why his work resonates with so many people.
Olivia Coleman is Queen Anne, the bratty, capricious monarch whose devotion only extends as far as her collection of rabbits. People mostly deserve contempt, and royal duties such as decisions on war against France are left to the Duchess Sarah Churchill (Rachel Weisz) her secret lover and confidante. Into this scabrous, misanthropic environment sashays the equally manipulative servant, Abigail Masham, played by Emma Stone. An uncomfortable take on triangulation ensues, with shifting power dynamics between the women.
With a soupcon of Genet’s The Maids in its DNA, it chokes the trappings of period drama by asphyxiation with its own corset laces. All of the stylistic tics are present and correct here: off-kilter camera angles; clipped, brusque dialogue, occasionally grating music, and ridiculous scenarios. As a character study, it’s brutal. As a critique of royal entitlement, it’s a riot.
But when it threatens to merely turn into a throwaway, giddy romp (those wacky violins- my ears) the mood darkens and a more thoughtful story emerges: one of illness, thwarted desires and the ageing process itself. Colman is both hilarious and heartbreaking. An asshole she may be, but the cracks of vulnerability breaking through make you care about her fate. She’s not just another queen in the traditional mould. Her Oscar was absolutely deserved.
Hit The North 