THE FAVOURITE

Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz, Nicholas Hoult, Mark Gatiss

You could be forgiven for thinking we’ve had our fill of English r oyalty dramas lately: no one’s actually been c rying out for a film about the 18th- century reign of Queen Anne . But that’d be reckoning without the wicked comic sensibility of Greek auteur Yorgos Lanthimos, who brings more dar k perversity and thrillingly queer desire t o this tale of palace rivalry than your history teacher ever did. While Anne ( Colman) is addled b y madness and ill health, t wo cunning ladies- in- waiting ( Weisz and Stone) compete for her favour in the court and bedr oom alike. What follows is a rich, raucous female po wer study in which every corset may as well be made out of razor blades. It’s a gleef ul regal take down but the performances giv e it human depth and complexit y. They’ll be bowing down to Colman’s magnificent work at next year’s Oscars. 1 January