The Favourite

The Greek director flew out of Greek weird cinematography as the mythical bird Phoenix and got an offer to make something bigger, European, from the life of English aristocracy. In addition, he got three experienced actresses, who show us an absolute moral bottom and since he himself is a bit strange, he made it quite opulent. Too bad the movie is so long. If it was shorter, I would maybe not have time to get bored. There are so many weird things in this film, that what you considered weird in the first five minutes will feel quite normal in the last half an hour. So normal that you will watch that scene and not even raise an eyebrow. The movie is so weird that I lost a few human emotions while watching it. I had to drink a bottle of Port wine to compose my thoughts and jump out of the world of nobility, where there are lot of disgusting things happening and everybody thinks it’s normal. However, the movie has its qualities. Apart from the emotionless performances of the actors, I was mainly amazed by the castle and its surroundings and the original camera. (2019-02-05)

Next time I need a heavy dose of the bizarre, I will just watch election campaign videos of various political parties and I might even have a good laugh. This was just 2 hours of the bizarre without the funny part and all 3 main characters were just plain unlikeable and annoying. The quality of the filmmaking and acting performances is undeniable, but I was bored throughout the whole runtime. (2022-08-17)

I feel that filming through a fisheye lens is not very appropriate for a historical costume film. Nor did I like the way the story was peppered with really vulgar language, which evokes the present rather than a bygone era. However, the screenplay is spot on about intrigue and devious manipulation at the royal court during the reign of Queen Anne of Great Britain is almost without fault. Most of all, however, I have to praise the excellent performances of Olivia Colman and Emma Stone. Both ladies obviously put their all into it, playing the roles of those unlikeable women incredibly convincingly. (70%) (2022-10-15)

As much as I like Lanthimos' previous films, I can't ignore the personal problem with them that everything in them – every leaf, every hair, every cloud – is an allegory. The Favouriteis the first film he didn't write the screenplay for himself, so that previous obstacle has fallen aside. Still, it's fun to watch a basically unconscious allegory of what it's probably been like for several years now in our own Lány. Leg included. (2019-04-22)

If you are into Lanthimos’s peculiar poetics and stylistic whims, The Favourite will very possibly be the most entertaining film of the year for you. Though the division into chapters and some of the visual deformations leave a dodgy impression, the absurdly escalating conflicts, the play with the setting and the lightning, the performances and the music are so good that the film flows as smoothly as if it had been directed by Kubrick himself. It is very nice that in the age of Hollywood feminism there are so many Oscar contenders where female characters are uneducated, indecisive or unbearably manipulative bitches. 85% (2019-01-29)