Rampant Rabbit

Rating: 6/10 (21 February 2019)

Enjoyable bawdy comedy that unfortunately loses a bit of steam towards the end, but still contains a trio of terrific performances.
Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) sits on the English throne, beset by depression and confusion she allows her confident and childhood friend Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz) to speak for her and guide an increasingly disgruntled parliament through a war with the French. Sarah fallen cousin Abigail (Emma Stone) joins her household initially as a maid, but soon begins to climb the social standing within the court. Abigail's social climbing eventually puts her at odds with Sarah for the affections of The Queen and it soon becomes apparent that one of them has to go.
I liked a lot of the style choices that director Yorgos Lanthimos makes here. The film has a very naturalistic look and often uses a wide-angle, or even a fisheye lens in the exterior scenes. Humour wise, it's pretty consistently funny, though often relying on swearwords and vomiting to get that across. Performance wise it's excellent. Colman is the standout, and it's pretty amazing to see her ascent from UK sitcom roles all the way up to Oscar nominations, via things like "Broadchurch" and "The Night Manager". Weisz and Stone aren't that far behind, definitely worthy of their nominations. Nicholas Hoult too is great as Harley, the leader of the Tory opposition in Parliament, he pouts, kicks and moans his way through another fabulous comic performance. Mark Gatiss, always great, surely can provide his own costumes now, the number of times he's played in period roles recently.
Where "The Favourite" wasn't quite as successful for me was the storyline, particularly towards the end. Without trying to give away any spoilers, I was hoping that there would be one more comeback for the lady who is forced to leave court, not particularly because I favoured her, just because she seems to resign to her fate too easily, but as it stands it ends as a bit of an anti-climax.
Preferable to "Mary Queen Of Scots" for me but not one I'll feel the need to revisit very often.