Opulent savagery and wicked fun

Rating: 10/10 (27 December 2018)

Yorgos Lanthimos is the very definition of chaotic good. His films are disturbing, shockingly violent, outrageously humorous and eerily allegorical to ongoing political and socioeconomic turmoil. His most recent film, The Favourite, is no exception.
The Favourite tells the tale of Queen Anne, the early 18th century monarch of England at a time ravaged by war, and her wavering relationships between Lady Sarah and Abigail as they fight to win over her affection and favor.
I remember reading a quote from someone that said Lanthimos' films are very akin to a horrific car accident: "you can't avert your eyes from it." While The Favourite is surely no exception, it differs from the rest of Lanthimos' filmography in that, while there is still a sense of outrageousness and frivolous absurdity, there is an obvious metaphor at the core of the story.
The film is about power, specificially amongst women during a period in history known for the achievements of men. Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz) acts as the queen's consultant and closest friend, a relationship that is put into trial when Abigail (Emma Stone), a young woman whose family has fallen on hard times, attempts to work her way up the political ladder. The entire duration of the film shows these women manipulating, deceiving, and brutally brawling with each other to win the affections of the queen but they both have different reasons for it. Abigail, who is rebuilding herself after being gambled away by her father, wants to be on top because she understands what it's like to have nothing. Lady Sarah wants to maintain her loving relationship with the queen, but also wants to continue to play with the big dogs in the court.
The film cleverly outlines how out-of-the-loop the queen was in terms of the ongoing politics of the country. "The war is over. We won," she contends to Lady Sarah after awarding her her own palace. "Oh, but it is not over. We must continue," Sarah responds with a sense of determination. "Oh. Oh, I did not know that." And the film follows through with this on just about every issue. It's certainly not entirely the queen's fault, however. She was ailing with physical and emotional pain, and was known to be despondent and unstable. Olivia Colman's portrayal of the decrepitude queen is masterfully commanding and darkly comedic; she perfectly captures the spirit and troubled soul of Anne. The two contending women, Sarah and Abigail, are portrayed by their respective actresses in a hilarious and horrifying way. We lose ourselves in their battle of the wits and not once does the film ever stop to justify their actions as having the best intentions. Nor does it ever try to paint them in glorified canvas. These are simply terrible, power-hungry people who will stop at no means to obtain or maintain their statuses. This is achieved by the excellent screenplay.
This is perhaps the most finely-tuned script that Lanthimos has adapted into film; it is also the first that he did not have a hand in writing (Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara are to blame for this slanderous entertainment). But, I think his attention and pertinence to a story he did not write pays off incredibly well because the end result is a film so ravished by opulent savagery and decadent deliciousness that it is endlessly fun and shocking at every turn.
Another thing that I found interesting was the direction. Yorgo Lanthimos has never really experimented with the camera on his previous films; sure, he's done a lot with negative space in his shots and the drab, neutral coloring of the cinematography has always worked in his favor. Here, he gives us a glimpse of a classical time through the eyes of the beholder.
The use of fish-eye lenses in certain shots are jarring and grab your attention, and they do so to show us just how overtly glamorous everything is. The immensity of the palace is compressed into this tight, claustrophobic space within the lens as a sort-of metaphor for how the excessive extravagance substitutes the vacancies at the core of the royalty. Love is not truly felt, but the allure of power is.
The Favourite is easily Lanthimos' best film to date. It is hilarious, gorgeous, and disturbingly exhilarating. Every turn is unknown and unpredictable in a way that only Lanthimos can fully capture. The Favourite will surely be a favo(u)rite for the year.