Not for everyone, and that's the point

Rating: 9/10 (28 April 2019)

Yorgos Lanthimos is a director that loves to challenge his viewers. He uses a variety of subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) film-making and story-telling techniques that assist him in punching up the story he is trying to tell. The viewer will likely fall into one of two camps: people that are interested in the art of filmmaking enough to pick up on, appreciate, and understand these techniques, and people that just wanted to watch a movie and not be subjected to subtle psychological prodding.
You can see this division play out in these reviews, with most people either highly praising the film, or saying it was boring, a waste of time, unsettling, disturbing, and nonsensical. The funny thing is that the critics are not entirely wrong with these labels - the film actually is at times unsettling, disturbing, and nonsensical, and intentionally so. This is trademark Lanthimos.
The classic example of one of Lanthimos' techniques, and something of his own trademark prior to this film, was the way characters in his films would speak in clipped, unnatural ways to keep the viewer off balance. Thankfully he has dropped that from this film, as I feel it was starting to hold him back a little. But he has included in its place a wide variety of interesting camera angles, lenses, lighting (such as intentional bad lighting, with faces darkened, something you rarely see), a soundtrack that transitions from pleasant to jarring and back, and anachronisms thrown in (Intentionally I believe).
Where I diverge strongly from the critics is that I found this film to be highly compelling and not boring in the slightest. The acting was absolutely superb, with Emma Stone in particular knocking it out of the park. The interplay between the three female lead characters was fascinating. The historical context created by the sets and scenery were mind blowing and I wish I could have seen this on the big screen to really appreciate it. And the aforementioned techniques kept me on the edge of my seat and guessing at what would come next throughout.