Beauty vs Beast: Queen Anne's Choice
Monday, January 21, 2019 at 3:00PM Happy Oscar Nominations Eve, everybody! Jason from MNPP here with this week's "Beauty vs Beast" which this week shall tackle one of the probable juggernauts nomination-wise tomorrow, or so we hope -- Yorgos Lanthimos' giddily profane The Favourite boasts a triumverate for the ages, with Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) sitting astride two wars, the more interesting one between her comely, craven subjects Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz) and cousin Abagail (Emma Stone). Everybody's predicting richkly deserved nominations for all three (while simultaneously bickering about their Lead vs Supporting placement) but we're more interested where you'd come down from Queen Anne's place...
PREVIOUSLY Last week you guys wisely took Joan's advice and didn't fuck with her, fellas - Faye Dunaway's stark-raving turn in Mommie Dearest trampled through the roses to a win of just under 80%. Said Roger:
"I love MOMMIE DEAREST. In terms of Oscar eligibility, Faye Dunaway absolutely should have won the Oscar. Her performance is incredible and almost experimental. I think this is a rare example where the overused remark of losing one’s self in a role is warranted. The line between Faye Dunaway and Joan Crawford is blurred beyond distinction. Both actresses are so enthralling that seeing one as the other, Dunaway as Crawford, is so electrifying it borders on hyperreality."
Reader Comments (22)
For Queen Anne, this is like the reverse Sophie's Choice.
I'm Team Sarah. Abigail is so predictable.
People describe this movie as a sexy All About Eve. And no one roots for Eve. Sarah all the way.
I prefer Emma's performance, but it's Lady Sarah all the way. Her one-liners are incredible and on each viewing, I'm stunned by how sympathetic she is by the end.
Wiesz who I can buy as support,I think she may win a surprise 2nd Oscar if King isn't nominated.
Do people really think now that Dunaway's performance was unfairly maligned or is she flat out OTT bad,do you blame the film and it's director or the screenplay or all of them.
Stone without a doubt gives the better performance. If she were in Best Actress I'd root for her to win.
Scott Feinberg has moved Stone to #1 in his Supporting Actress Oscar predictions. She is amazing in the film but it is not a supporting performance.
markgordonuk - Unfairly maligned. Sure, there are some really out-there moments — the rose bushes scene for one. But if one watches MOMMIE DEAREST for only its camp elements, they’re mostly likely gonna be wildly disappointed.
It sidesteps traditional Oscar bait bullshit we see so often by doubling as a great melodrama and a great horror film.
Some of the sequences in this film are some of the scariest, most disturbing you’ll ever see. The wire hangers moment is certainly a perfect highlight for the film’s iconography. However, not enough discuss how the scene escalates. In what constitutes as performance art, Joan and Christina doused in powdered cleanser is even more terrifying.
There’s also just about nothing more horrifying than abuse. I think the film captures it with tremendous effect, portraying mental illness and alcoholism with more nuance and honesty than you’d except from such an over-the-top life.
With utter sincerity, I believe Faye is remarkable. While the most notable award she won was the Razzie for Worst Actress, the New York Film Critics and the National Society of Film Critics both named her as their runner up for Best Actress.
All three leads were remarkable but surprisingly I responded to Emma Stone the most.
I responded to Stone the least,Wiesz was sympathetic whereas Stone wasn't by the end but was at the beginning,such switching of moral feelings about those 2,will be a delight to watch again.
Despite being an Oscar winner, I feel that Stone’s potential for great actressing has been indertapped until the one-two punch of The Favourite and Battle of the Sexes. For that reason I vote for Stone while relishing in the fact that Weisz is 100 percent on her wheelhouse and completely owning Sarah Churchill’s incredibly biting characterization and machinations. Brava all around.
P.S. All three are leads—l-e-a-d-s. Neither are really supporting.
Team Sarah, no question. While this is Stone best performance to date, for me, it’s a tossup between Weisz and Colman for MVP. A tragic, deeply felt love story between Sarah and Queen Anne hides in plain sight. When it sneaks up on you in their final scene together between the door, it elevates what is already an entirely enjoyable film and recontextualiizes everything. Sarah was and always will be the favourite.
Also, there is no doubt that all three are leading roles. I also share the belief that if the Oscar doesn’t go to King as I expect, Weisz wins her second.
I watched this on Friday and I thought Rachel was MVP and should be being showered with awards. So brilliant - my favourite line was her talking about Abigail’s father ‘he had energy to burn and well, I suppose he did didn’t he’
Paraphrasing but the slyness and the inflections and her face - brilliant performance.
I watched this last night in a small festival in Germany and I came out loving every minute of the movie. Olivia Colman was fantastic and I would give her the Oscar over Glenn Close and Lady Gaga.
Between Rachel’s Sarah and Emma’s Abagail, the latter was at the start who I rooted for. However, in the end, it was Sarah I surprisingly felt for more. Team Sarah!
I still don't know if Dunaways gunning for camp or believes in this version of JC who has no redeeming qualities if this is the version we to invest in,the supporting cast is worse than Dunaway by a mile..
my favourite thing about THE FAVOURITE (well, one of them) is my shifting allegiances throughout... you really do end up feeling for all three of them but the triangle is so toxic. so this was hard to vote on!
sarah - she's a lady just likes to have a little fun
@Mareko - Right? These are three leads and all three are marvelous.
I'm on Team Abagail, both for character and acting. Mark my words, at the end of her career, Emma Stone will have a very long list of nominations and awards.
For me it's all about Olivia Colman. Geez, she was phenomenal. I'd give her two Oscars, each one handed by these two.
I loved how I rooted for a different member of the trio depending on which point of the movie.
Lady Sarah, tho. She really loved The Queen.
While I was impressed that Emma Stone handled the accent perfectly and was terrific in this part, my sympathies remain with Lady Sarah Churchill.
She was very sympathetic at the end, and clearly had the most far-sighted view of the best political moves for the kingdom.
Queen Anne lost her real love, and best political strategist when she lost Sarah.
Rachel Weisz was fabulous in those riding clothes as well. Team Sarah.