The Favourite

This was dreadful. I strongly suspect it still is Saw this after reading some rave critic reviews. Should have been my first red flag. Critics have a habit of raving about unwatchable dreck and that is exactly what this is. Honestly, there is not a single redeeming feature of this film other than that it does, eventually, finish. There's no way anyone giving this five stars mean it. They're only doing so out of some misguided belief it makes them cultured. Avoid. Avoid with the strength of a thousand suns.

Wicked dark comedy about two women competing for the attention (and control) of a sick Queen Anne, their exchanges (in front of others) polite on the surface, but venomous under the surface, which only they (and the audience) know - and this is the source of the fun, along with their schemes - almost like watching a boxing match that everyone else in the scene thinks is a dance. Women behaving very badly.

I've been following this director, hence my viewing this. I found it difficult to nail down his influences for the other films, which I won't bother naming, but I find they scream loudly in this: in that Peter Greenaway and Ken Russell loom large. That's all I'm going to say. And I'm giving it four stars.