Better Late than Never on "The Favourite"

As I do around this time of year, I try to catch up on some award winning movies from the previous year. Most premium channels are now showing them, and the other day HBO was playing “The Favourite”. I recorded it, and I literally just finished it about 10 minutes ago. Needless to say, I have some thoughts.

First off, I wanted to see this movie because I really enjoyed the director’s previous movie, “The Lobster”. I wanted to see what he would do next. Now I have to say up top, I enjoyed “The Favourite”, but I also have about a million questions that I don’t know will ever get answered, but that’s okay. I like when a movie makes me think about it for a few days after I watch it. That is the sign of a good movie to me. That shows that the director, writers and actors all did their jobs, and did them well. That being said, it’s a super weird movie. It is even wilder, to me, than “The Lobster”.

“The Favourite” just kind of starts, and moves along from there. You get the idea that it’s about a queen, but it takes awhile to get to the real story of the movie. It did start a little slow for my taste, but when it picks up, it really picks up. The movie is about a sickly and petulant queen who basically chooses between 2 women to be her second in command. Olivia Colman is wonderful as the queen. She is petulant and moody and whiny and childish and paranoid. Colman nails this. She is really good in this role, especially when the story starts to pick up.

Now, I don’t want to take anything away from Colman, as I said, I thought she was great, but Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz are far superior in their performances, for me. This is a total departure from what Stone usually does, and man is she wonderful. She is manipulative and willing to do anything to climb the social ladder and only cares about herself, no matter who gets hurt. I’m used to seeing Stone, who I really like as an actor, play the good person, the hero. She is very far from that in this movie, and she nails it. I was blown away by her performance. It makes me like her even more. I don’t know if she was nominated for this or not, but she definitely deserved to be either way. She is so good in this movie. But Rachel Weisz, to me, was the absolute star of this movie. She is so, so, so good. She is strong and powerful and commanding and righteous. She is the queen’s right hand person so much so that she essentially runs the country for me. She is a total badass too. She doesn’t take any crap from anyone, and she’s a fighter. At first I didn’t like her character, but as the movie went on, I grew to love her, and root for her. I couldn’t figure out who to root for for a bit. Then Weisz has this tremendous turn, and I totally bought in. Not only should she have been nominated for sure, she should have won many awards for this role. She was amazing.

There were some other smaller performances from some solid actors, but this was really a story about these 3 women, and it was very well told. The movie is haunting, yet beautiful to look at. The music is absolutely incredible. I found myself, saying aloud to no one, that the music in this movie rules. I would totally listen to this score just for fun. And the three main actors totally nailed their performances.

As I said, I still have a ton of questions, but “The Favourite” is a good movie, and it deserves all the accolades it got. I like the movie, and I recommend it. Just know that it is very strange, and will leave you scratching your head, in a good way.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Ty dislikes the Oscars so much he never pays attention to them. If he had, Ty would know that both Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz lost their shots at a second Oscar when Regina King won her goddamned deserved first Oscar.

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Ty Does Not Watch the Oscars

As per usual for the last, I’d say 5 or 6 years, watched zero seconds of the Oscars. I have a computer and an iPhone, so I can check who won later that night, or the next day. I chose the next day this year, and I have to say, I was a bit shocked.

Now, I need to disclose up front that I have only seen 2 of the movies that were nominated, “BlackKlansman” and “Black Panther”. I much preferred “Black Panther”, but that’s neither here nor there. Also, I did see “Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse”, which definitely earned its Oscar, and I also saw the Pixar short, “Bao”, which was heartbreaking yet wonderful. Outside those, I saw nothing. But, I do read and hear things by public personalities and journalists that I enjoy. I heard all the lukewarm stuff towards “Bohemian Rhapsody”. I heard about the craziness that is “The Favourite”. I heard about the apparent snooze fest that was “Green Book”. I saw the, quite frankly, rough reviews of “Vice”. I’ve heard nothing but great things about “Roma”, and I have exactly zero interest in ever watching any iteration of “A Star is Born”.

My basic knowledge, and hope, was that “Black Panther” would win all the awards. Of course, it did not. That’s not to say it didn’t win anything. I’m pretty sure it won 4 statues, for stuff like costume design and whatnot. But, in my opinion, it should have won best picture, director, actor and all actresses awards. Since “Sorry to Bother You” got no nominations, and totally overlooked, “Black Panther” was my ride or die movie.

Since my favorites didn’t win any of the “major” awards, I was interested in who, and what, won. First off, I’ve never heard the song “Shallow”, but I already am sick of it. “All the Stars” should have won, or any one of the brand new Coup songs from the “STBY” soundtrack. But I digress. I’m totally done with “Shallow”. Secondly, when on earth is Spike Lee going to get his much deserved Oscar? I’m sure Alfonso Cuarno did a fine job with “Roma”, and I’m sure I’ll like it when I see it, but Lee is well overdue an Oscar, and while I thought “BlackKlansman” was just okay, Lee did a wonderful job directing it. By all accounts, best supporting actress was Regina King’s to lose. And, she won. That’s great. As far as Mahershala Ali going back to back for supporting actor, great. I’m just not so jazzed by the movie he won it for. I’m very stunned that Glenn Close didn’t win best actress. Everyone claimed that she was as much a shoe in as King. Well, Olivia Coleman won. And while I have every intention of seeing “The Favourite”, I like the weird stuff that director does, it was still a shock that Coleman won. This one seemed assured. I feel like this is when the show went off the rails. While I think Rami Malek is a fine actor, and will be for a long, long time, how did he win every big best actor award? I mean, “Bohemian Rhapsody” has so many problems, be it with the fudging of facts, the way they barely touch on Freddie Mercury’s sexuality and the scumbag of a director, this movie should have been doomed. Oh yeah, it also got crushed by critics. But Malek still won best actor. The crop was weak, maybe they should have put up LaKeith Stanfield and/or Chadwick Bosman or Michael B Jordan, but still, I cannot fathom how Malek won. The academy clearly just wants to keep giving the award to people that do impressions of famous people. That’s lazy.

But the biggest blunder of last night has to be “Green Book” winning best picture. Again, I was pulling for “Black Panther”, but I knew it wouldn’t win. Honestly, I thought “Roma” was the presumed winner. And if not “Roma”, I figured “The Favourite” would win. I never, ever thought “Green Book” would win. Like I said before, the movie seemed like a slog, Ali looked like the only good thing in it, the story is old and boring and the past stuff with the director and writer, lookup old tweets and flashing of genitalia, should have put the nail in its coffin. Or so I thought. Hell, even “Bohemian Rhapsody” might have been a better choice. This one is as puzzling as when “Crash” won. Maybe even more so. This is very, very confusing to me. I don’t know what the academy saw in “Green Book” to give it best picture, but they totally whiffed. This is a big time misfire.

Last night’s Oscars is why I’m glad I don’t waste three plus hours of my life watching these award shows. I mean, “Green Book” shouldn’t have even been a nominee, outside Ali. This is a baffling choice, and I’m sure this “win” will go down as one of the worst choices ever. This was bad, and the majority of the show, from what I’ve read, seemed like a mess. Oh well. I’m going to go watch some good movies now, like “STBY”, or “Teen Titans Go! To the Movies”, or “Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse”, or “Best F(r)iends”. Peace.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He is aware that Spike Lee did win an Oscar for Adapted screenplay. He also does not think it makes up for the Oscars Spike did not win for “Do the Right Thing”, “Malcolm X”, “He Got Game”, “The 25th Hour” and any other film from the best director of his generation.

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