The Favourite (2018)

Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Writers: Deborah Davis, Tony McNamara
DOP: Robbie Ryan
Cast: Olivia Coleman, Rachel Weisz, Emma Stone

In early 18th century England, a frail Queen Anne (Olivia Coleman) occupies the throne and her close friend, Lady Sarah (Rachel Weiz), governing the country in her stead. When a new servant, Abigail (Emma Stone), arrives, her charm endears her to Sarah initially and then the Queen. This eventually makes Sarah and Abigail rivals competing to be the favourite of the Queen.

The film works like a love triangle where the love in it is questionable. You broadly know where it is going after the initial set up itself and that in no way comes in the way of your enjoyment of it. The three main characters are based on historical figures. Even though it is set in period, the dialogues and accents used are quite contemporary, like in The Death of Stalin, and the camera is used in a very peculiar manner with fishbowl lenses. It is very funny but the central character in it is quite a tragic figure. The decisions made on matters of state are quite arbitrary very much depending on the mood of person. The European monarchies became genetically so weak due to the incestuous nature of marriages between them and you can see that when you look at their representatives from the contemporary times.

All the recent Lanthimos films did have an animal species name as part of their title while this film ends with a scene which dissolves into a bunch of rabbits. It is the most straight forward of the films that I have watched of his. That tend to happen usually for the directors you are a big fan of, their least interesting work becomes the one they are most famous for as they are much more accessible for a general audience. Olivia Coleman deservingly won the academy award for her role in this and gave the best acceptance speech from this year's ceremony. So glad to see the Peep Show girl winning an Oscar.

Rating: 4.25/5

The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)

Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Writer: Yorgos Lanthimos, Efthymis Fillipou
DOP: Thimios Bakatakis
Cast: Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Barry Keoghan

Steven, a cardiologist, is forced to make an unthinkable sacrifice after his life starts to fall apart, when the behaviour of a teenage boy who he has taken under his wings turn sinister.

It is better to watch the film without knowing anything about it, which is always the case for most films but especially in these kind of films from interesting directors like Yorgos Lanthimos. 'Dogtooth' was told in a matter of fact manner while 'The Lobster' was quite a comedy. His films can generally be described as dark comedies set to interesting situations and the degree of darkness can vary. This outing of his is the darkest of the lot and works more like a horror film by the end, especially if you are lulled into a comfortable state with a lobster hangover.

Colin Farrell teams up again with the director and Nicole Kidman, in an Eyes Wide Shut look, plays the role of wife who is also a doctor. They got two children and the interactions between all of them are quite modern and robotic. Barry Keoghan, whom we have seen in Dunkirk, plays the role of sinister teen-ager. It is the Haneke films like 'The Seventh Continent' and 'Funny Games' and Kubrick films like the one mentioned before and 'The Shining' that it reminded me of. I was slightly taken aback by the straight forwardness of its ending without a twist or anything. It is a great watch with some hard to stomach scenes and situations.

Rating: 4/5

The Lobster (2015)

Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Writer:    Yorgos Lanthimos
Cast:       Colin Farrell, Rachel Wiesz, Olivia Colman, Jessica Barden, John C. Reilly

In a dystopian near future , single people, according to the laws of The City, are taken to The Hotel, where they are obliged  to find a romantic partner in forty-five days or else are transformed into beasts and sent off into The Woods. 

As highlighted in the synopsis, three places of importance in the film are The City, The Hotel and The Woods. The film begins with Colin Farrell, a recently divorced guy, getting transported and checked into The Hotel. We learn over the course of the film that 'The City' is only for people with partners and 'The Hotel' is a place where a chance is given for single people to find a partner and move back  into the city. Over the 45 days in the hotel they are occasionally taken into the woods where they can hunt single people with tranquilizer guns. These are people who have escaped from the hotel and ran away out of fear of being turned into animals. Colin Farrell's character is also forced to go into hiding after a relationship he develops in the hotel breaks down. The Loner/Single people in the woods take him in after warning him about the strict rules that they have to prevent people from partnering up,which includes strict punishments for flirting. They are allowed to dance strictly alone and to electronic music, which is the only kind of music allowed (I love electronic music). 

I have seen many people complaining about not understanding what is going on in the film. It is a laugh out loud comedy which satirizes both the pathetic courting techniques employed by many people while pursuing their potential partners as well as the superiority that is sometimes exhibited by single people who make it seem as if they are single by choice. To be fair, both groups have a habit of looking down on the people in the other camp and the film pokes fun at both of these camps. During large periods of human history, being single is considered a stigma from the societal point of view and it is only during modern times that the so-called independence that it affords started getting accepted. The film depicts a scenario where the society has fallen back to a time where attitude is very harsh towards single people. I found the film to be quite straight forward in terms figuring out its meaning and is enormously funny. These kind of films often become a struggle for the audience to watch once the novelty associated with the setting of its universe starts to wear thin. The Lobster manages quite well on that regard, as things are revealed very gradually only with the director respecting audience's intelligence, even though the ending is kind of weak. 

To sum up, it is a great film with plenty of laughs despite its rather tame and lazy ending. I wouldn't say that it is a dark comedy since most of the laughs in it are from pretty straight forward satire, unlike Yorgos Lanthimos' previous Greek film- Dogtooth. Dogtooth was a film that divided audience but even those who hated it might end up liking 'The Lobster'. Performances from the stellar cast is excellent, like you would expect, and the film is set in Scotland, I guess. We get a mustached Colin Farrell in the film and it must have been shot ahead of True Detective Season Two. 

Rating: 4.5/5