{"id":1676,"date":"2018-11-28T04:01:07","date_gmt":"2018-11-28T04:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/juliacore.com\/beyondthebarre\/?p=1676"},"modified":"2018-12-10T19:32:34","modified_gmt":"2018-12-10T19:32:34","slug":"the-favourite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juliacore.com\/beyondthebarre\/2018\/11\/28\/the-favourite\/","title":{"rendered":"The Favourite"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aurore Dudevant, better known as George Sand, once referred to men kidding themselves they hold power: Let them think they decide. It seems like this is the bottom line of The Favourite<\/a><\/span>, a movie with three strong female leads and a bunch of men in the background. Men who \u201cmust look pretty,\u201d who are heavily overdone with makeup, wigs, dressup. They are on the receiving end \u2014 by word, by letter, or by hand.<\/p>\n

The story in a nutshell. 18th century. England is at war with France. An ailing Queen Anne (Olivia Coleman<\/a><\/span>) is plagued by gout, indigestion, and memories of seventeen lost children. Sarah, the Duchess of Marlborough (Rachel Weisz<\/a><\/span>), is taking full advantage of the situation to advance her and her husbands\u2019s personal interests to continue the war. Sarah rules the country as well as she rules the queen \u2014 in bed. A newcomer to the British court, Abigail (Emma Stone<\/a><\/span>), Sarah\u2019s distant cousin, enters the picture. Abigail is on a mission to restore her society status once damaged by her father’s doings. She\u2019s approaching the task with \u201cAll About Eve<\/a><\/span>\u201d style starting by making a concoction to treat Queen Anne\u2019s gout and ending up in Queens\u2019s bed. Intrigue at the high court.<\/p>\n

No more spoilers.<\/p>\n

My whole trip to the city was planned around watching this movie, but it was Tom who alerted me: his friend\u00a0Tariq,<\/a><\/span>\u00a0better known as Doctor Oscar,<\/a> said the tickets could be sold out if I get to the theater too close to the start time. I popped my phone: four hours before the show and only three tickets left. Thank you, Tariq \u2014 I got one!<\/p>\n

The theater was packed and a few peaceful squabbles over the assigned seats \u2014 something New York moviegoers are not accustomed to \u2014 made it more exiting.<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Olivia Coleman, Queen Anne, in this movie is mesmerizing. I did not have her on my radar, although she was in The Lobster<\/a>, and Hyde Park on Hudson<\/a>, and The Iron Lady<\/span><\/a>. Her performance is one of those when you forget what time period you\u2019re actually living in and which is on the screen. She\u2019s vulnerable, she\u2019s powerful, she\u2019s miserable, she\u2019s lustful. Her precise close ups are impressive like no other I can remember. She is definitely an Oscar contender for the Best Actress.<\/p>\n

Rachel Weisz first draw me in with Wong Kar-wai<\/span><\/a>\u2019s My Blueberry Nights<\/a>. It was like: Who is That Woman? I followed her since then \u2014 on screen and on stage. She delivers here full force.<\/p>\n

Emma Stone \u2014 I loved her in The Help<\/a>, in La La Land<\/a>, Battle of the Sexes<\/a>, and Crazy, Stupid, Love.<\/a>\u00a0In The Favorite, she still performed herself, just like in every other movie. And she fit in just right. Kudos to great casting and Yorgos Lanthimos<\/a>! \u00a0 Someday Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone will go against each other for the Best Supporting Actress. But it\u2019s hard to see how Emma can beat Rachel.<\/p>\n

All in all \u00a0\u2014 it is a dirty, dark comedy with high-class casting based on great writing, guided by unconventional directing. It is fun.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aurore Dudevant, better known as George Sand, once referred to men kidding themselves they hold power: Let them think they decide. It seems like this is the bottom line of The Favourite, a movie with three strong female leads and a bunch of men in …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1737,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juliacore.com\/beyondthebarre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juliacore.com\/beyondthebarre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juliacore.com\/beyondthebarre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juliacore.com\/beyondthebarre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juliacore.com\/beyondthebarre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1676"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/juliacore.com\/beyondthebarre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1695,"href":"https:\/\/juliacore.com\/beyondthebarre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1676\/revisions\/1695"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juliacore.com\/beyondthebarre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juliacore.com\/beyondthebarre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juliacore.com\/beyondthebarre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juliacore.com\/beyondthebarre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}