The Favourite: Dark Comedy, Power, and Politics in Film

The Favourite, a 2018 historical dark comedy directed by Yorgos Lanthimos. Also known as a palace intrigue thriller, it turns royal court politics into a twisted game of manipulation, where loyalty is currency and madness is a weapon. This isn’t your grandpa’s costume drama. No sweeping orchestras, no noble sacrifices. Just three women—Queen Anne, Sarah Churchill, and Abigail Masham—fighting for control in a world where every glance is a threat and every whisper could change a kingdom.

What makes The Favourite stand out isn’t just its sharp script or the wild performances from Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, and Rachel Weisz. It’s how it uses period drama as a lens to expose modern power dynamics. The wigs, the corsets, the candlelit halls—they’re just the set dressing. At its core, this is a story about who gets to speak, who gets to be heard, and who gets left in the dark. The film doesn’t romanticize royalty. It shows them as petty, desperate, and strangely human. And that’s why it connects so deeply, even years later.

It’s also one of the rare female-led film that doesn’t feel like a checklist. No male savior. No love interest to fix things. Just women, in all their messy, brilliant, cruel, and vulnerable glory, running the show. The camera lingers on their faces, their silence, their rage. You don’t need to know the history of the War of Spanish Succession to feel the tension. You just need to understand what it’s like to want something badly enough to destroy everything to get it.

If you’ve ever wondered why people still talk about this movie, it’s because it doesn’t just entertain—it unsettles. It’s dark comedy that laughs at power while tearing it apart. And it’s packed with moments you won’t forget: the duck race, the rabbit obsession, the whispered threats over tea. These aren’t just scenes. They’re symbols. Each one cuts deeper than the last.

Below, you’ll find articles that dig into the making of The Favourite, how it fits into the bigger picture of modern cinema, and why films like this keep changing what we expect from history, gender, and storytelling. Whether you’re here for the style, the satire, or the sheer audacity of it all—there’s something here for you.