The Favourite (2018) ****
Director Yorgos Lanthimos scores again with his most accessible film to date, The Favourite (2018), his third English language feature, after 2015's The Lobster (2015) (review) and 2017's The Killing Of A Sacred Deer (review). Those other two films tend to be intentionally obtuse, but, accessible as this film may be, it's still a bitter, darkly comic delight about what women of various statures will do for love, for country, and, in particular, for their own gain.
The cinematography draws much attention to itself but Lanthimos goes for broke (to great success) with swish pans, fisheye lenses, multiple exposure, and natural lighting à la Barry Lyndon (1975) (review). All three leads are fantastic, as they plot, yearn, and backstab. The at times rapid-fire, acerbic dialogue is delicious. The costumes and production design are impressive, but a wonderful juxtaposition is created by the crude language, anachronistic dance moves, and the repetitive, tense, atonal score. The movie is very funny, but there is a great deal of unease everywhere, and Yorgos's avant-garde tendencies are still on display.
While not as epic or sweeping as Lyndon, I did find other similarities in The Favourite—both films are obviously set in 18th century England and feature characters rising and falling in society, and both films are the type of period dramas that buck the conventions of the genre. The Favourite is definitely one of mine this year.
You can find my Yorgos Lanthimos Feature Films Ranked list here.
The cinematography draws much attention to itself but Lanthimos goes for broke (to great success) with swish pans, fisheye lenses, multiple exposure, and natural lighting à la Barry Lyndon (1975) (review). All three leads are fantastic, as they plot, yearn, and backstab. The at times rapid-fire, acerbic dialogue is delicious. The costumes and production design are impressive, but a wonderful juxtaposition is created by the crude language, anachronistic dance moves, and the repetitive, tense, atonal score. The movie is very funny, but there is a great deal of unease everywhere, and Yorgos's avant-garde tendencies are still on display.
While not as epic or sweeping as Lyndon, I did find other similarities in The Favourite—both films are obviously set in 18th century England and feature characters rising and falling in society, and both films are the type of period dramas that buck the conventions of the genre. The Favourite is definitely one of mine this year.
You can find my Yorgos Lanthimos Feature Films Ranked list here.
Comments
Post a Comment