Tag: James Smith

The Favourite

Posted on by Jeremy Clarke

The maverick Greek director of Dogtooth (2009) makes his third English language film and his first period costume drama. The Favourite is loosely based on early 18th century historical record. Queen Anne, the last of the Stuarts who was beset by health issues, had some 17 pregnancies including many miscarriages and no heir surviving beyond the age of 11.

Her smart and shrewd childhood companion and friend Lady Sarah Churchill did much of Anne’s thinking for her, pushing her to support the merchant class political party the Whigs rather than the landed gentry party the Tories. The Whigs demanded support for a war against the French, while the Tories were resistant to the heavily increased taxes which funded the war effort at their expense. The relationship of Lady Sarah to the Queen was undermined by the arrival of maidservant Abigail Hill, a ruthless member of the gentry whose family had fallen on hard times and who was determined to fight her way back up the social ladder at any cost.

If that outline is true to the facts, the screenplay fashioned upon their foundation by Lanthimos and screenwriter Tony McNamara seek to explore less the historic detail of what actually happened and more the power dynamics of the three women involved. Olivia Colman is magnificent as the shy and vulnerable Anne who nevertheless wields absolute power as monarch. Rachel Weisz makes a fearsome Lady Sarah, whether the powerful manipulator seen at the start or the hideously disfigured victim of a riding accident she becomes towards the end as events turn against her. Emma Stone as the social climber Abigail however seems to be playing the same empowered woman character she always plays.

There’s a strong if historically contentious sexual element, with Lady Sarah the Queen’s clandestine lover until Abigail, who initially ingratiates herself with both Anne and Sarah by using a herbal paste to relieve burning sensations in the bedridden Anne’s legs, replaces Sarah in Anne’s affections. Further intrigues involve the English two party Parliament in the story’s background. Foppish opposition Tory leader Robert Harley (Nicholas Hoult, the memorable psychotic from George Miller’s 2015 Mad Max: Fury Road almost unrecognisable under a lengthy, light coloured wig) senses Abigail working her way into the Queen’s favour and wants to recruit her to spy on Lady Sarah and Anne. Although a fringe character, he is more pivotal to the action than his rival the government’s Whig PM Lord Godolphin (James Smith) who the Queen, under Sarah’s influence, supports.

Apart from Stone’s arrival where she’s literally pushed out of the carriage into the shit on the ground, her excursions into the forest to collect ingredients for a herbal paste to ease a painful condition on her arm and scenes of Lady Sarah outside shooting and riding, the proceedings play out within the confines of Anne’s vast palace – kitchens staffed with cooks and maids, lengthy corridors with footmen, the Queen’s vast bedchamber which is also a well-stocked library.

Cinematographer Robbie Ryan frequently shoots from bravura angles although his slavish use of Kubrickian reverse tracking shots is less than original and while the overall look and feel of the piece echoes Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick, 1975), it lacks that film’s rigorous discipline and doesn’t similarly immerse the viewer in its eighteenth century world.

Lanthimos still hasn’t bettered his earlier, homegrown Greek films like Kinetta (2005) and Dogtooth (2009) both of which not only present strange and unfamiliar worlds to the viewer but also completely immerse him/her in them. Those promised a maverick artist on a par with the likes of Lynch and Cronenberg, on which promise his bigger budget, English language movies (The Lobster, 2015, The Killing Of A Sacred Deer, 2017) haven’t to date delivered. As with those films, while there’s much to admire in The Favourite, it still fails to achieve those qualities of Lanthimos’ early films that marked him out as destined for greatness.

The Favourite is out in the UK from Saturday, December 29th. Watch the film trailer below:

Do Something, Jake

Posted on by victorfraga

This charming crime thriller, directed by James Smith and written by both Smith and Caroline Spence is a neatly plotted tale of an unlikely hero, Jake (Jamie Alderson).

We quickly learn from his limp job centre interviews with Bob (M.J. Simson) and his breakfast chats with the delivery guy (John Savage) that Jake is illiterate and stuck in a cycle of failed jobs and daytime gaming. Around 15 per cent (5.1 million) of adults in the UK are functionally illiterate; it is significant that Smith and Spence chose this protagonist for their story. Jake’s difficulties with reading and writing are presented sympathetically and portrayed as something that could happen to anyone.

The communication difficulty is hampering Jake and we see him taking steps to learn to read and write. The new skill pays off later in the plot when he becomes the amateur investigator of an illegal drug operation. Jake’s driving force throughout the story is his love for neighbour Alice (Mia Mills) watching her every move surreptitiously and concerned for her wellbeing as she is being beaten by her boyfriend Guy (Thomas Loone). Guy and Alice are well played by Mills and Loone, we believe they are a couple and find ourselves drawn in to Jake’s plan to rescue her from the abuse.

Moments of humour occur at key points in the plot. Jake following the drug dealers to their hideout in a three wheeler driven by Grumpy Man (David Brown) is genius. There is a hilarious cameo from Sue Moore as the grumpy woman, a lovely pay off from the glimpses of her earlier in the narrative. Social Services Woman’s (Nenaa-Jo Uraih) interactions with Jake are marvellous.

This is an ambitious film to make on a zero budget and at times the lack of resources shows. The locations for the Police Station and interview rooms distract the viewer from the story as it is impossible to believe that we are in this setting. Too much time is spent on shots of Jake watching Alice, with cutaways to details of his calendar notes on the movements of Guy and his criminal colleagues.

The guitar music (James Ryan) is effective driving us towards the story’s conclusion, but we become tired of the guitar plucking single notes to denote tension. A tighter edit of some of these moments might have given us a faster paced story.

However, the filmmakers are to be commended for what they have achieved on a limited budget. Laugh out loud moments are threaded throughout this Midlands set thriller with a heart of gold. Overall it is a watchable film with a central character that we do not often see as a hero on screen.

Do Something, Jake premiered in London in mid-November. A general release date has not been announced yet. Click here for more information about the film sales, press and media.