The Favourite
From what I’ve seen, Yorgos Lanthimos is a director that builds amazing movies on very obscure concepts, which I thought was missing from this one, but he still manages to make it his own despite the standard “rise to power” storyline.
After finishing The Favourite, I’m thinking it might be my favorite film by Lanthimos, although It’s a bit too soon to say for sure. The world of the early 18th century England is captured perfectly, in my opinion, and you can really tell how much work was put in the costumes, sets, props and makeup. The cinematography manages to make the little moments stay with you, not just the climaxes of the story, for example, I’m still thinking about the bird shooting scenes with Abigail and Sarah and how beautifully shot they were.
The performances were some of the best I’ve seen from these actors. I think Emily Stone is the best actress working today and she has been doing phenomenal work the past 10 years or so. Olivia Coleman, Rachel Weisz and Nicolas Hoult also give amazing performances and their character dynamics make the film so fun and entertaining to watch.
The story at its core is about a woman trying to better her situation no matter the cost, how our desires shape us and make us do things we never thought we were capable of, both good and bad. Abigails journey throughout the film takes its time to show us how she changes as her desires grow and her goal gets bigger. Emily Stone’s performance makes the character extremely raw and real, giving her a sense of depth we would not have been able to see and feel otherwise. The plot flows smoothly with the different dynamics between the main characters and makes the movie enjoyable to watch.
The only complaint I would have is that everyone’s motives are always clear and we always know what everyone is up to, which kills any element of surprise. The plot, at times, feels a bit too linear (if that makes sense) making the sequence of events kind of repetitive.
Overall, I loved the movie and think It’s one of the best by Lanthimos.