The Favourite

The Favourite is about Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) who rules Britain from 1702 to 1714. The film portrays her as bit of a sad person plagued by ill health, a recluse and a part-time lesbian. She’s possibly sad because of her 17 failed pregnancies for which she has to show only 17 rabbits representing each one that ended in either miscarriage, stillbirth or a very short life. This I suppose might be enough to make you seek solace in your own sex. 

Or possibly sad because of the political turmoil she has to precede over, not that she takes much interest in ruling the country and leaves most of the bickering\blackmailing\murdering etc to her Prime Minister Sidney Godolphin (James Smith) and the opposition leader Robert Harley (Nicholas Hoult).

She does opt to raise taxes to pay for the war with France on the advice of her ‘lady in waiting’ Sarah Churchill (Rachel Weisz), Duchess of Marlborough, the wife of the general who commands the army. Mostly because Sarah is not only in possession of the royal ear but also the royal bed.

However Sarah’s sexual obligations to Anne are curtailed when Sarah’s cousin, Abigail Hill (Emma Stone), arrives on the scene as a chambermaid intent on shagging her way up the social ladder. Abigail was once an aristocrat herself until her father allegedly gambled her (and lost) in a poker game. I hasten to add there is no historical record to support this nor for that matter Anne’s rabbits. Although with the whole film supposedly being a riotous comedy sticking to the facts is probably not strictly necessary.

It doesn’t take Abigail long at all to oust Sarah from her role in delivering special services to the Queen while at the same time, conveniently for him, Harley is trying to get Abigail to persuade the Queen to stop financing the war. He strikes a deal with Abigail by offering her marriage, which will restore her status, to his friend Masham (Joe Alwyn) who Harley refers to as ‘c*** struck’ with Abigail.

Abigail though is not so struck with Masham and she consummates their marriage by nonchalantly jerking off her new husband with a look of disgust on her face before wiping her hand on the bedclothes.

Quite where Anne’s husband, Prince George of Denmark, is throughout all this we’re not sure.

All in all it’s an excellent period romp and all great fun, although obviously not good clean fun. The film boasts three excellent female leads which may stop people pointing out there are not enough female lead roles but probably not. In what is looking to be a very thin year for films it will no doubt pick up an award or three as well as educating everyone with new and varied uses of the ‘c’ word.

Battle Of The Sexes

The Battle of the Sexes is primarily about the exhibition tennis match in 1973 between possibly the best female tennis player at that time Billie Jean King (Emma Stone) and three time Wimbledon men’s champion 55-year-old Bobby Riggs (Steve Carell).

However the film is much more than that, focusing on the off court drama as well. It tries to cover the formation of WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) and King also falling in love with another woman at the same time. In a way it’s a mini biography of her life but it has to shuffle the timeline and some facts to do so. 

King was indeed instrumental in the formation of the WTA after she became annoyed that the male players were receiving cash prizes up to eight times that of the women, despite the fact they attracted just as many spectators. So in 1970, King and seven other women started to set up their own breakaway tournaments which led eventually to the formation of the WTA in 1973. The WTA went on to be hugely successful and is still going strong today.

 

1973 was also the year that Riggs, a self-proclaimed male chauvinist pig who was clearly missing the limelight, challenged the then world number one Margaret Court to a match. In his eyes this would prove that men are better than women at tennis and well better, full stop. He easily beat a poorly prepared Court on what became known as the Mother’s Day Massacre.

When he subsequently challenged King she also accepted, despite previously saying that she wouldn’t but now feeling that she needed to fly the flag for womankind to make up for Court's failings. Riggs wasted no time in ramping up the acrimony by going on TV to proclaim that women only belong in the kitchen and the bedroom.

King seems to take the latter bit of advice on board, although not in a way that Riggs would have appreciated, when she takes her hairdresser Marilyn Barnett (Andrea Riseborough) back to her hotel room. It is also not greatly appreciated by King’s husband Larry (Austin Stowell). 

In reality Barnett was actually King’s secretary and the affair had already been going for two years but the film alters this point despite the reality being possibly even more fascinating. Along with the fact it was Barnett who outed her secret superstar girlfriend eight years later. 

Their relationship, as well as disrupting her marriage, doesn’t do a lot for her concentration on the tennis court but she bounces back to beat Riggs in rather exaggerated movie style in their game at the Houston Astrodome.

Despite my initial reservations the film is surprisingly entertaining, smart and well-acted. It also has the potential to educate, inspire and make you 'google', in a time when not enough films attempt to do so. 

Stone is once again excellent, among other things making her relationship with Riseborough very believable. If anything the film attempts to cover too much and spreads itself a bit thin to do so. It does actually make me want to see a full biopic of BJK.

La La Land

La La Land is of course the ‘must see’ film of the year and, of course, a musical. So never before have I been ready to hate a film so much because I really dislike pointless singing in films but we always try to see all the Oscar nominees so... here we are.

What’s worse we’re even at the Cineworld multiplex as our local independent Broadway is fully booked. The omens are not good, not good at all.

I immediately feared the worst when the film opened with a scene that was practically straight out of Grease. Grease isn't a bad movie, just not really my thing at all, and people sing ‘n’ dance in traffic jams all the time, so nothing pointless about that. It happens every day on my commute down the A52.

This however was a pivotal moment, things got a whole lot better.

La La Land tells the story of Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) and Mia (Emma Stone) who first meet in that all singing all dancing traffic jam in Los Angeles, presumably the LA in La La, in what becomes the first of several chance meetings. 

Sebastian is a frustrated jazz pianist who dreams of opening his own jazz club but is stuck playing Christmas songs in a bar just to make ends meet. That is until he finally cracks, plays something different and gets sacked. As he storms out he brushes past Mia who was about to approach him in chance meeting number two.

Mia is a prospective actress but who works in a coffee shop on Warner Brother's lot while she awaits her big break. Unfortunately audition after audition just deals her rejection after rejection.

Mia again bumps into Sebastian at a party where he is in the band that are playing. He’s looking very bored as they cover A-ha’s ‘Take On Me’ but that’s nothing to how he looks when they take requests from the floor and Mia asks for ‘I Ran’. They don’t really come much more uncool that the uncool 80’s band that were Flock of Seagulls, unfairly so me thinks, and it’s like a knife in the back for our frustrated jazz pianist. The song is perhaps also an appropriate comment on the Mia\Sebastian story so far.

It probably means something... he says of their third chance meeting, probably not... she replies, as they finally get to talk.

They get together and we follow them over the course of the next four seasons as they urge each other to pursue their dreams but while eventually Mia does and starts her own one woman show, Sebastian goes on tour with a band playing music he doesn’t really like just for the money. He is away so often it kills their relationship.

Yet it is Sebastian that turns up out of the blue to pick Mia up off the floor after her show fails and forces her into one last audition which is the one that finally lands her big break but that takes her away from him, possibly for good. 

Five years on they have another chance meeting. Sebastian has finally started his nightclub while Mia has moved on with someone else but... what if... and this is the deal with La La Land, everything has a 'what if'.

The big one is whether Mia and Sebastian should pursue their dreams and their art or just go after the money? Do they then end up together? 

Meanwhile the film take a swipe at Hollywood for having the same choice and repeatedly picking the latter. What if Hollywood doesn’t make Star Wars 27 and Rocky 46? Ha ha.

In between there are clever references to classic films such as ‘Rebel without a Cause’ which is an interesting choice for their first date and which Mia had to dump her current bloke to get to.

The other thing is that this isn’t really a musical, it’s just a damn good film with a decent soundtrack that they happen to sing rather than play in the background but it also has a message, a decent plot, a lot of cleverness and some astonishing cinematography, if bordering on the surreal at times. It’s happy, it’s sad and I do love an unhappy ending but of course, different people will see different things in this film as I’m sure is the intention.

Emma Stone is simply amazing, which ought to make the whole thing disappear down a massive plot hole as she plays a girl who can’t get an acting job. Ryan Gosling meanwhile tries to not look out of his comfort zone and I think gets away with it. 

I shouldn’t really have doubted the film as it’s directed by Damien Chazelle who made the excellent Whiplash, another jazz filled film, and this also features the brilliantly humourless JK Simmons as Sebastian’s bar owner boss.

The worrying thing for the Oscar competition is that this is such a good film as it is but imagine how good it could have been if they’d left out the singing and dancing. Doesn’t bear thinking about. Fellow musical haters face down your demons and go see it.

Birdman (or The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance)

Birdman is a black comedy of sorts about a man called Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton), a man typecast as Birdman, a superhero type character who pulled in the punters at the multiplexes and presumably ran for several pointless (you would imagine) sequels. Thomson, now ashamed of this 'selling out', wants to reinvent himself as a ‘proper’ actor on Broadway. Keaton, twice Batman of course before quitting to avoid becoming typecast himself, appropriately plays the lead.

In an attempt to prove himself, Thomson directs and stars in his own adaptation of a Raymond Carver short story. It is a bold attempt to be taken seriously but also a doomed one. Throughout he is persecuted by the character that made him famous. His Birdman alter ego keeps appearing in his mind, telling him that he will fail.

The public too do not want him to move on from Birdman and the critics, namely Tabitha of the Times (Lindsey Duncan), will never give him a good review because of who he is.

Then when his co-lead in the play is mysteriously knocked unconscious by a falling stage light, it is thought that his replacement well known method actor, Mike Shiner (Edward Norton), could well save the show. Mike though is exceptionally unstable. He gets drunk during his first rehearsal and later attempts to have sex with the female lead (Naomi Watts) whilst they're on stage.

He fails on that score but is more successful with Thomson’s daughter (Emma Stone), an assistant on the production and straight out of drug rehab.

Thomson’s quest is further derailed by his girlfriend (Andrea Riseborough), who might or not be pregnant, his ex-wife (Amy Ryan) who can't seem to stay away from him and his pushy producer (Zach Galifanakis).

Everyone is depicted as deeply flawed as the film takes a dig at actors in general as well as taking shots at a public that will shell out good money to see action packed rubbish.

Birdman is good but not fantastic and it isn't ground breaking by any means but in what looks like being a meagre year for award contenders it may be one of the best we get.