The Favourite (2018)

Yorgos Lanthimos shoots a royal palace through a fish-eye lens, so every hallway bends like you’re spying through a peephole, and by the umpteenth curved corridor the trick stops being clever. Everything else in The Favourite is razor sharp. It’s a rivalry for the queen’s favor played like two cats sharing one sunny windowsill. Rachel Weisz plays Sarah like a general who never stops giving orders, blunt to the point of cruelty, and Emma Stone’s Abigail starts out sweet and gets more dangerous every time she smiles. Olivia Colman is the reason to watch. Her Queen Anne is lonely, sick, petty and heartbreaking, sometimes inside one scene, and she’s funny enough to make the sad parts hurt more. Nicholas Hoult wears the biggest wig in England and serves every insult like dessert. It made $95.9 million worldwide on a reported $15M. An 8.7 because two rivals fight for one queen’s ear and all three actors win. $2,408 says the next time someone in your house grabs the good seat on the couch, you start plotting.

What works: Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone are all superb, and the script’s insults are vicious and very funny.

What doesn’t: The constant fish-eye shots start to feel like a gimmick, and the cryptic final scene drifts off instead of landing.

Who it’s for: People who like their period dramas sharp, strange and much funnier than the corsets suggest.