The Favourite (2019)

[chveik]

The new Lanthimos film! (released in january)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYb-wkehT1g

Could be good.

[Orias]

Have seen this in the US and it is terrific. Well shot, very funny and a terrific central performance from Olivia Colman. And I pretty much loathed The Lobster and The Killing Of A Sacred Dear, due to the stylised performances. But this is quite magnificent.

[zomgmouse]

Is this really all that's been written about this on here?

Fuck this was great. Consistently funny and ridiculous and gets increasingly thrilling, ending with a real pang of sadness. Reminded me a lot of if Peter Greenaway did Dangerous Liaisons. Terrific camerawork, terrific acting (aside from stellar turns by Colman, Weisz and Stone I was delighted by a surprise Gatiss and also James Smith), terrific script. Possibly the best time I had in a cinema this year. A feast for the eyes and mind. Jumped straight to almost the top of my list for 2018.

[Icehaven]

Have seen this in the US and it is terrific. Well shot, very funny and a terrific central performance from Olivia Colman. And I pretty much loathed The Lobster and The Killing Of A Sacred Dear, due to the stylised performances...

And I, which is why I was going to give this a miss as I'd presumed it'd be the same, but if not I'll definitely be checking it out.

[zomgmouse]

And I, which is why I was going to give this a miss as I'd presumed it'd be the same, but if not I'll definitely be checking it out.

Oh no it forgoes that affected stilted dialogue style entirely. Flows free like shit from a duck's crack.

[sevendaughters]

vvvvg film, Greenaway meets Barry Lyndon versus Wolf Hall with eXXXtra seXXXual subteXXXt. first Lanthimos film I've enjoyed on any level but what an achievement.

[TrenterPercenter]

As others have said it is brilliant. First 15 minutes had me a little worried (As it seemed a little bit disjointed at first) but what follows is glorious.  Excellent performances all round and a load of interesting themes running through it.

4.5/5 here really really good

[Funcrusher]

Wow, this is really good. It manages to feel true to the period setting while using the contemporary and very sweary language in a way that really works - it's genuinely funny and every joke lands, unlike the totally shit version of this that exists in some parallel universe directed by some mediocre British director with Judy Dench and Jim Broadbent looking like they're being terribly daring when they say 'cunt'. All the performances are excellent and the gradual shifting in the balance of power between Stone and Weisz' characters is really tightly written. Lanthimos has made a really successful transition to working outside his own country and with higher profile actors, which often doesn't work that well. This seemed like a strange choice of material for him but it does fit with the themes of his earlier films of a strange enclosed world and the struggles of its inhabitants to survive.

[BritishHobo]

Everything that's been said here, but also; fuck they pulled greatness out of that location (Hatfield House). Especially after the sycophantic Downton Abbey trailer that played before the film, camera so deferential taking in the big fuck-off manor house and its important inhabitants you can almost see Julian Fellowes standing behind the camera desperately forelock-tugging (by which I OBVIOUSLY mean WANKING) - Lanthimos and his team did an incredible job of making it an absolute fucking nightmare hell-maze, so massive it's claustrophobic, cramming so much of the overpowering decor into every shot. It made me feel sick, and I loved it.

[wooders1978]

Is this really all that's been written about this on here?

Fuck this was great. Consistently funny and ridiculous and gets increasingly thrilling, ending with a real pang of sadness. Reminded me a lot of if Peter Greenaway did Dangerous Liaisons. Terrific camerawork, terrific acting (aside from stellar turns by Colman, Weisz and Stone I was delighted by a surprise Gatiss and also James Smith), terrific script. Possibly the best time I had in a cinema this year. A feast for the eyes and mind. Jumped straight to almost the top of my list for 2018.

It's nice that you were surprised by Gatiss and Smith - thanks for the heads up to the rest of us

[zomgmouse]

It's nice that you were surprised by Gatiss and Smith - thanks for the heads up to the rest of us

Sorry I should have spoilered that.

[non capisco]

Nah you're alright, they're actors in a film. His faux-offence is as daft as pretending to be annoyed if you said Emma Stone is in it.

[zomgmouse]

I mean I understand spoiling the surprise however I suppose my surprise did come from just not looking at the cast list.

[Head Gardener]

loved this but boy, the 'laugh rate as high as Airplane' reviews are way off

[PlanktonSideburns]

Emma Stone is in it.

Oh for Fucks SAKE man

[marquis_de_sad]

I absolutely hated The Lobster but loved this. Crucially, Filippou did not write the script for this one, which made an enourmous difference. I agree with what everyone said above, the acting, the script, the way it was shot was all great. The only bit I didn't like was the dance routine. I thought the weird modern style brought nothing to the scene (and actually distracted from the Queen's reaction, which was the whole point) and really only seemed to exist for the trailer. As Funcrusher says, the swearing - even though it's anachronistic - really worked. For me the dance didn't.

[Wet Blanket]

I enjoyed this but didn't love it. Felt it was the meanest and most sour in a career so far of incredibly mean and sour films, but without the mitigating weirdness of his other stuff. I can see I'm in the minority here but I really like the mannered speech and absurd plots of the previous movies. Shorn of that I was kind of overwhelmed by the misanthropy of The Favourite. To me it's his harshest work by far so I'm surprised it's the one that has broken through into the mainstream.

[greenman]

I enjoyed this but didn't love it. Felt it was the meanest and most sour in a career so far of incredibly mean and sour films, but without the mitigating weirdness of his other stuff. I can see I'm in the minority here but I really like the mannered speech and absurd plots of the previous movies. Shorn of that I was kind of overwhelmed by the misanthropy of The Favourite. To me it's his harshest work by far so I'm surprised it's the one that has broken through into the mainstream.

I'm not really surprised its the film that's broken though to his widest audience so far as I think its arguably his most entertaining, mostly focused on comedy and more luxuriant visuals.

Going along with that I'd say its the slightest of his films so far dramatically, can't say I found it very disturbing to watch in the way Sacred Deer and Dogtooth were but the flipside is its also  rather lacking in characters to empathise with which arguably makes for a "meaner" feeling overall.

I'v enjoyed the mannered speech previously but equally it is interesting to see him move away from that somewhat although its not all done 100% straight either. You could argue its more like Dogtooth were theres a reason for some characters speaking strangely rather than existing in a world were everyone speaks strangely.

[PlanktonSideburns]

Had a great time with this. Not seen any Lanthimos yet, but this was ace. It gets said alot but Olivia colman is a so bloody great, really plumbs all the depths of her character, never pushes things into sillyness, manages to be funny, tragic and completely real. Rachel Weisz if awesome an hard as fucking nails, and has an electric chemistry with coleman. Emma Stone is great also with her crazy bug eyes and pluck. Spoilt for characters, with a script to match them, properly gripped throughout

Looks and sounds great also. Something really cool about all the near fish eye lens shots, impossibly dark corners and candle light, gorgeous outdoor scenes. Lovely stuff

[Ja'moke]

I enjoyed this but didn't love it. Felt it was the meanest and most sour in a career so far of incredibly mean and sour films, but without the mitigating weirdness of his other stuff. I can see I'm in the minority here but I really like the mannered speech and absurd plots of the previous movies. Shorn of that I was kind of overwhelmed by the misanthropy of The Favourite. To me it's his harshest work by far so I'm surprised it's the one that has broken through into the mainstream.

Same.

Perhaps my expectations were too high going into this because of all the hype and therefore I finished it feeling a little underwhelmed.

Like you, I really enjoyed the stylised performances and absurdity of his previous films, and I also thought The Lobster and Killing of a Sacred Deer were funnier than The Favourite.

[greenman]

Same.

Perhaps my expectations were too high going into this because of all the hype and therefore I finished it feeling a little underwhelmed.

Like you, I really enjoyed the stylised performances and absurdity of his previous films, and I also thought The Lobster and Killing of a Sacred Deer were funnier than The Favourite.

It was more pleasantly witty/amusing rather than having moments like Farrell asking his kids teacher "if you had to choose between them?" but honestly it was pretty much what I was expecting as a more palatable version of his previous work written by others although I think you can see there was almost certainly some re writing under his influence.

I'd enjoyed the stylised performances of his previous work but I'm not sure I'd have liked to see him spend his entire career doing that, you still weren't exactly dealing with conventional performances.

[non capisco]

Looks like Anne Sellors the 'urinating woman' from Threads has a new rival for best one-credit role on imdb.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10083301/

[Sebastian Cobb]

Saw this tonight. Thought it was great. And thought Coleman, Weisz and Stone were all fantastic in their own way in it.

[greenman]

Looks like Anne Sellors the 'urinating woman' from Threads has a new rival for best one-credit role on imdb.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10083301/

We wondered what TFM had been up to post banning.

[gilbertharding]

Saw this on Saturday. Enjoyed it. Read the entry on Queen Anne in 1066 and all that, which made me enjoy it more:

Anne: A Dead Queen

QUEEN Anne was considered rather a remarkable woman and hence was usually referred to as Great Anna, or Annus Mirabilis. Besides being dead she was extremely kind-hearted and had a very soothing Act passed called the Occasional Conformity Act which said that people only had to conform with it occasionally: this pleasant trait in her character was called Queen Anne's Bounty. (The Occasional Conformity Act was the only Act of its kind in History, until the Speed limit was invented.)

The Queen had many favourites (all women), the most memorable of whom were Sarah Jenkins and Mrs Smashems, who were the first Wig and the first Tory. Sarah Jenkins was really the wife of the Duke of Marlborough, the famous General, inventor of the Ramillies Whig) of which Sarah wore the first example.

Succession of Wars

All through the eighteenth century there was a Succession of Wars, and in Queen Anne's reign these were called the Spanish Succession (or Austrian Succession) because of The Infanta (or The Mariatheresa); they were fought mainly on account of the French King L/XIV (le grand Monomarque) saying there were no more Pyrenese, thus infuriating the Infanta who was one herself.

Probably the Wars could never have been fought properly but for the genius of Marlborough, who could always remember which side the Bavarians and the Elector Pantomime of the Rhine were supposed to be on: this unique talent enabled him to defeat his enemies in fierce battles long before they could discover which side he himself was on. Marlborough, however, was a miser in politics and made everyone pay to go into his party; he was therefore despised as a turnstyle.

In this reign also occurred the memorable Port Wine Treaty with Portugal, directed against Decanters (as the Non-Conformists were now called), as well as a very clever Act called the Schism Act which said that everybody's religion was to be quite different from everybody else's. Meanwhile the Whigs being the first to realise that the Queen had been dead all the time chose George I as King.

Then I discovered that the film is good because it is queersexpositive, but problematic because all the actors are heterosexual.

And further problems became apparent when I discovered on twitter the timeline of this person:

https://twitter.com/alexhaagaard/status/1083357843988889600

I'm not sure I completely agree with her ultimate conclusion (Olivia Colman's "shitty disability drag" can fuck off), but looking past the anger I think there is a point, unfortunately.

[Funcrusher]

Not even going to so much as look at any of that. It's an excellent film, might even be the best thing I see this year.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Not even going to so much as look at any of that. It's an excellent film, might even be the best thing I see this year.

Lol this, I'm not going to stop you letting some sigh off of the Internet ruin something for you, but I won't be doing the same.

[gilbertharding]

Isn't it a valid question though? It's a major theme of the film - was it addressed properly? Who gets to judge?

[Funcrusher]

Personally I don't think of either sexual orientation or disability as major themes in the film. I get to judge because I'm the boss of me and my opinions are my own.

[greenman]

Isn't it a valid question though? It's a major theme of the film - was it addressed properly? Who gets to judge?

Honestly though I think its a question the film itself answers first showing Ann as more of an "amusing eccentric" before showing us the tragedy behind her illness, for me the end result is much more effective than the typical saccharine Oscar bait that commentator would prefer. I think the most you could say is the commentary on the film doesn't do justice to the film itself.