The Favourite
Overview
At Queen Anne's court, friendship is a weapon and affection is the prize. Olivia Colman plays the frail, sickly, emotionally unstable monarch of early 18th-century England, caught between two women who want her ear: Sarah Churchill (Rachel Weisz), her close friend and advisor, and Abigail Masham (Emma Stone), Sarah's cousin, who arrives at the palace and becomes a rival for the Queen's affection. Yorgos Lanthimos' period black comedy is darkly funny, visually stunning, and twisted — a story about power, jealousy, and the nature of friendship, where every kindness has a price and every smile hides a move. Colman's performance as the childish, petulant Queen Anne is gloriously over the top, and the whole film plays like a chess match where the board is a palace and the pieces are people.
