Cinematic brilliance.

Rating: 10/10 (24 January 2019)

At once lavishly sumptuous and brutally intimate, this film delivers a promise fulfilled. Yorgos Lanthimos' fish-bowl vision of the early-18th century court of Queen Anne, prodded and poked at this viewer's expectations and prejudices, and ultimately served up a cinematic treat scarcely enjoyed since 2015's "The Lobster". Driven by frank performances that astound and pervert, and a deliciously dour score sounding like an amalgam of heartbeats, foghorns, and creaking clockworks, the droll gravitas of this dark dramedy reminds one of Voltaire (to paraphrase): "God is a comedian playing to an audience afraid to laugh".