The Favourite

The Favourite

It’s fun to be Queen sometimes.

Rating

3.5 (2)

Release Date

11/23/2018

Runtime

120 mins

Overview

England, early 18th century. The close relationship between Queen Anne and Sarah Churchill is threatened by the arrival of Sarah's cousin, Abigail Hill, resulting in a bitter rivalry between the two cousins to be the Queen's favourite.

Status

Released

Original Language

English

Budget

$15,000,000

Revenue

$95,918,706

Homepage

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How It Feels

Read from this film's synopsis, keywords and credits, and used to work out what it sits beside.

A deliciously twisted portrait of court intrigue where two women compete for a Queen's affections with darkly comic intensity. Sumptuous visuals and fearless performances make this historical drama feel utterly contemporary and wickedly entertaining.

Mood

PlayfulBittersweetTenseAbsurd

Themes

PowerLoveIdentityBetrayal

Tone

Playful

Pacing

Brisk

Look

PainterlyFormalistHigh-contrast

Structure

Linear

Reviews

nicolascagegoons

The production design, costumes, sets and enviroments all look amazing and the great cinematography which embraces the shiny-ness of the palace and the colors of the costumes, helps the film feel really like....A REAL PLACE.

It just sucks that the script is very mediocre.
It tries to reach for something with every character but everytime it almost gets there, it drops the ball and does nothing with them. Nicholas hoult is incredible wasted aswell as emma stone. Not in the performances as they are all pretty good but again, the writing gives them nothing to work with.

Lanthimos is a skilled director but what irritates me about his style and direction, especially with his script is that allot of the times his films are just weird for the sake of weird. It sometimes can create interesting worlds, quirky-ness and weirdness is a thing you can build entire realities from inside of film but everytime lanthimos does that, it falls entirely flat because he forgets those realities also need to have people with strong personalities in them.
To be fair this is one of his more tame films.

(Also watch my newest film My review of i love bottle caps on Letterboxd https://boxd.it/aKMnNv )

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