The Favourite

Working from a shrewd, taut script by Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara, the eccentric, Greek, art-house director Yorgos Lanthimos (Dogtooth, The Lobster, The Killing of a Sacred Deer) delivers his best film yet with The Favourite. Set in the early 18th century while England is at war with France, Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone play two wickedly sharp cousins jockeying for position in the court of a dim, sickly, and near-infantilized Queen Anne (a masterful Olivia Colman).

While loosely based on real characters, Lanthimos and the screenwriters are about as interested in historical accuracy and period details as Quentin Tarantino was when making his wonderfully audacious Inglourious Basterds. Traditional British costume drama trappings are utilized here to spin a sublime yarn about palace intrigue of yore with a rich contemporary subtext about how female power is wielded in a male-dominated world. The three leads command the screen. Rachel Weisz, already having a marvelous year with My Cousin Rachel and Disobedience, is perfectly cast as Sarah Churchill, the Duchess of Marlborough, who effectively rules England via her manipulative yet brutally honest relationship with the Queen. The somehow-still-surprisingly-excellent Emma Stone gives her darkest performance yet as Abigail Hill, Sarah's impoverished cousin who ingratiates herself first with the Duchess and then with the Queen. And Olivia Colman (Tyrannosaur, Hyde Park on Hudson, Murder on the Orient Express) pulls off the amazing hat trick of making her Queen Anne simultaneously comical, grotesque, and deeply sympathetic.

The Favourite plays almost as if it were about the three actresses jockeying for who will win the most praise and awards for their portrayals, but each performance is so grounded and fine-tuned to the picture’s quasi-surrealistic tone that they never crossover into camp, satire, or self-conscious audience winking. Watching these three ladies circle and one-up each other, while easily dealing with the peripheral men of power they must occasionally tolerate, makes for 2018’s most delectable cinematic pleasure.