The Favorite (2018, Yorgos Lanthimos) - Thoughts, ratings?

At the library the other day, I recalled folks here being upset about it going nearly cold turkey at the Academy Awards, save for Olivia Coleman's best actress win, so I picked it up. After watching, I definitely agree that it is one of the better movies from that bunch.

Rating: 7 out of 10, not quite an 8 for me, but I would watch it again.

Things I liked:
-The love triangle elements
-Unorthodox camera shots and lenses (edgy angles, nearly fish eye)
-The musical score
-The performances and costumes
-the chapter sequencing style (The Hateful Eight, anyone?)
-lengthy cross-fade transitions
(as an iMovie user, that final transition was some FinalCut Pro action!

Things I did not like:
-The credits, terrible choice! Isn't the point of credits to, you know, give credit to a bunch of people that made the movie possible? Good luck being able to read any of their names! I even noticed that the STARS of this movie even had their names as hard to read. If I was some big shot actor, I'd protest that crap. Anybody know the point to it?

-Not noticing that was Nicolas Hoult!

What would you peg this film as? It struck me as a psychological "thriller", but the stakes didn't seem as high as say a De Palma flick. Being a lady at court was a highly-sought commodity, and it gets pretty intense by the end of things, but thriller doesn't seem like the word.

How about themes? Did I understand the ending correctly? That

Character motives were mostly sensible to me, except for Sarah. I mean, did she want to be Queen by proxy and be friends with the Queen forever, or what? My wife said she did some research and found that Sarah's husband was ambitious and surely being close to the Queen and having her liking would be a good thing. Wife says there is a lot of speculation that Sarah manipulated her way to the Queen's side to influence politics during the war, and perhaps the romantic aspect encouraged her keeping once in that spot.

The husbands are clearly an afterthought here, though. And the movie definitely doesn't imply anything, but rather makes it clear there is a romantic relationship at play, for all three women. I was a bit confused by the tension and fighting, though. Why does Sarah feel so threatened by Abigail? At one point, we learn that she has her own palace elsewhere. Unless it's a threat to her being Queen by proxy.

I was also questioning Abigail's continued presence at court. I mean, once she got her "lady" status back by marrying a dude of some esteem, why stay on as the Queen's official leg rubber?

Did you think the ending arrived at the right time? I was wondering what happened to Sarah and Abigail, honestly, despite the rabbits scene. Movie did a nice job of alluding to the Queen suffering a stroke. No epilogue summaries here, as that sort of aloofness is clear in this movie. You could almost omit the entire royalty aspect and war subplot.

My wife also found theories that Queen Anne's struggles (mental and physical) were a result of inbreeding. I did feel bad for her, and certainly by the end of it, she regains her control for the most part. Wife told me she suffered several early deaths for her children, and I feel like that was not expressed clearly enough. There is a scene where the Queen laments about it in some words that I cannot recall, as well as an early scene about her several rabbits representing her dead children.

Here is a YouTube video of a user my wife likes talking about the story:


Definitely a movie that got me thinking, and I enjoyed watching it.

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Motivation wise the film plays Sarah's position pretty much along what you say, a desire to retain the power she has mixed in with a seeming belief in the rightness of her cause and some care for Ann. Abigail is I'd say soon shown to have similar aspirations minus the moral aspects, her position might seem menial but the degree of control this gave her over Ann was considerable. Beyond that as well though Abigail falling out with Ann would potentally have been damaging to her.

Its really I'd say a film focused on its personal relationships rather than the larger politics and in that sense I think it ends at the right time. Its essentially a cautionary tale showing these three characters all ending up miserable due to their ambitious natures.

Influence wise I'd say Kukbricks(and Lathimos has always had a strong influence from him IMHO) Barry Lyndon and Peter Greenaways The Draftmans Contract. Like those films whilst the design work is very detailed its not really intended to portray historical accuracy existing in a kind of elevated darkly comic reality.

I loved this movie...here's a link to my review:


https://www.movieforums.com/reviews/...favourite.html