If, like me, you are already done with finals and perhaps have a day or so before your flight home, one great method to de-stress from tests and essays is going to the movies! After my last exam ended at 2pm yesterday, I walked over to our local Evanston theater for a matinee of The Favourite.
Starring Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz, and Olivia Colman, this darkly humorous period piece follows the story of two cousins who vie for the attention of Queen Anne of England during the 1700s. Director Yorgos Lanthimos divides the narrative into different chapters that grow more intense as the movie progresses. By using fish-eye lenses and sweeping panoramic shots, viewers are left disoriented but completely absorbed in the action. The movie also relies heavily on candlelit scenes, which makes the large castle where it is set even spookier! Emma Stone’s British accent is a little trying at times, but her switch of characters between an innocent servant girl and a cunning lady makes the role one of her edgiest performances, in my opinion.
If you liked Sofia Coppola’s modern twists in Marie Antoinette and enjoy any type of intriguing historical drama like The Other Boleyn Girl or The Young Victoria, then I would highly recommend The Favourite as the next movie that you will want to see. Additionally, it has received five Golden Globe nominations and the American Film Institute has already deemed one of the top ten films of 2018. It may even be your ‘favourite‘ movie of the year!