The Favourite has a little something for everyone. Palace intrigue! Double crosses! Fancy clothes! Scathing social satire! History, sort of! Gunplay! Handjobs! Mud baths! Silly dancing! Animal cruelty! A bewigged but otherwise nude man being pelted with pomegranates in slow motion!
Okay, maybe The Favourite isn’t for everyone—it’s a Yorgos Lanthimos film, after all. The Greek director of Dogtooth, The Lobster, and The Killing of a Sacred Deer invariably strives to unsettle his audience, and there’s a lot in The Favourite to make the average costume-drama aficionado decidedly uncomfortable.