clonerys’s review published on Letterboxd:
The Favourite is a pretty great movie. Everyone I've heard from about this film has said how excellent this is, and while it's not as amazing as some say, it's still pretty good.
My favorite part of this film would be the acting. All around, Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, and Rachel Weisz are all excellent. Olivia Colman is probably my favorite of the 3, and she gives what's genuinely one of my favorite performances of all time. She's absolutely incredible here, and her dynamic with Stone and Weisz is so interesting. My next favorite of the three would probably be Emma Stone. She's just one of my favorite actresses in general, and she gives another amazing performance in this film. She plays such a compelling villain, and her lack of redeeming qualities makes her character and role far more interesting. Even though she is my least favorite of the three, Rachel Weisz is also really good. I think her character arc of the three was the most compelling, and she's definitely the most interesting character purely from a development standpoint.
Other than that, the visuals are really excellent in this movie. The cinematography defaults to a lot of wider shots which gave this a very unique touch. This wider framing mixed with a subtle unsteadiness made for a really interesting way for shooting. The shot composition in this film was also really good, and it was very effective at staging the relationships between the characters. In a lot of shots, Queen Anne is isolated in one part of the frame, representing her loneliness, but in other shots she's placed very deliberately next to some characters and far from others. This creates for a visually intriguing film and one that's told just as well through the framing as well as the writing. On the other end of the visual spectrum, the costumes and sets look gorgeous. There's a lot of lavish costumes and they all fit the time period really well, and they all look excellent. The production design too for every room looks amazing. This feels like a true transformation back into the time period of which the original story takes place in just based off how amazing the production values are alone.
My criticisms with The Favourite are pretty small. The main issue I have is probably the filler in this movie. There's a handful of scenes near the beginning of the second act that could've been cut, especially since they can feel pretty aimless. Other than that, my other major complaint would be the ending. Some people hate the ending, and while I didn't hate it, it definitely wasn't the way I would've liked the story to end. I'm not gonna get into spoilers, but simply put, the way they ended certain character's arcs was a bit unsatisfying.
The Favourite was still a really good movie, and one of the better films of its year. This is probably my favorite of the Best Picture noms from that year, and it definitely should've won awards for supporting actress, writing, costumes, production design, and more. I'd highly recommend this movie, as it's a pretty fun and surprisingly entertaining film. Even if period pieces aren't necessarily your thing, you'd probably still really like this.