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The Favorite (2018) N
In early 18th century two women are competing for the favor of the frail and childish Queen Anne.
I've seen only one Lanthimos film before (The Killing of a Sacred Deer) and now after The Favorite I'm leaning towards an odd conclusion. I think he is a talented filmmaker but he's chosen a questionable way to distinguish himself from others - he wants to ruin his movies on purpose for them to be memorable, to make viewers angry at the lost potential.
The broken things Lanthimos includes in The Favorite are far less obtrusive than the acting in The Killing of a Sacred Deer though. Still things like the terrible fisheye lens, overused heightened sense of depth, monotonous soundtrack and the ending that feels like director giving the finger do make the film feel far worse that it could have been.
Acting is really good and when Lanthimos takes his job seriously the film also looks beautiful. I like the writing as well both regarding the story itself and the characters (the triangle between three women was interesting and the differing motives of Sarah and Abigail were well built). As a whole The Favorite is very hard to rate - there's too much that I like but also so much that I hate.
In early 18th century two women are competing for the favor of the frail and childish Queen Anne.
I've seen only one Lanthimos film before (The Killing of a Sacred Deer) and now after The Favorite I'm leaning towards an odd conclusion. I think he is a talented filmmaker but he's chosen a questionable way to distinguish himself from others - he wants to ruin his movies on purpose for them to be memorable, to make viewers angry at the lost potential.
The broken things Lanthimos includes in The Favorite are far less obtrusive than the acting in The Killing of a Sacred Deer though. Still things like the terrible fisheye lens, overused heightened sense of depth, monotonous soundtrack and the ending that feels like director giving the finger do make the film feel far worse that it could have been.
Acting is really good and when Lanthimos takes his job seriously the film also looks beautiful. I like the writing as well both regarding the story itself and the characters (the triangle between three women was interesting and the differing motives of Sarah and Abigail were well built). As a whole The Favorite is very hard to rate - there's too much that I like but also so much that I hate.