hey there last week I saw the favorite
and I think it may be the best movie
about royalty that has ever been made I
highly recommend it but I don't think
it's the comedy it's being sold as most
of the reviews have focused on how
entertaining it is the performances are
flawless and the writing is mercilessly
funny
it's an infinitely quotable film and in
portraying the love triangle between
free very powerful woman it could be
seen as progressive in some ways all
that is true but that's not really the
way I saw it I think the favorite is a
horror film you are mad giving me a pass
it is a monstrous extravagance this is
Molly we are at war we won which is not
over
we must continue no I did not know that
some commentators have questioned why
the lgbtq nature of the material wasn't
more front and center in the promotional
material but I think it was the right
choice
this wasn't a positive portrayal it was
an illustration of free profoundly
damaged and damaging individuals doing
each other even more damage the horror
here is that these folks were running a
country and making decisions about life
and death for millions based in large
part on how their love lives were going
that's really the way that most of the
world was run for much of human history
since the advent of farming a couple
thugs on top got to do pretty much what
they wanted and it was horrible for
almost everybody else we don't see that
in movies much it may seem like the film
is exaggerated and some of it definitely
is but the United Kingdom's war policy
and its choice of commander-in-chief
really did depend on the state of Queen
Anne's relationship with Winston
Churchill's great-great-great
great-great-great great-great grandma
Queen Anne wasn't alone in this we are
the modern UK parliament to the fact
that British Kings kept marrying
Catholics that their Protestant subjects
hated and don't get me started on the
world historically nightmarish
selfishness of Henry the eighth monarchy
is an insane way to run a country and
the way that the favorit relentlessly
illustrates that fact is more than a bit
genius
we are supposedly far beyond individual
leadership now most of the world's
people live in countries that it
pretend to be run according to the will
of the people and most decisions are
usually made for more worthwhile reasons
than personal interactions of our
leaders but you wouldn't know it from
our popular culture we seem to
desperately want some kind of nobility
to look up to even though most of the
few remaining royal families are largely
powerless we spend a great deal of
emotional energy on their ridiculousness
this weird mismatch between government
and sentiment extends to our movies and
TV shows take Braveheart for example
Robert the Bruce the Scottish King that
betrays our hero is still portrayed as a
good guy Netflix just gave him a new
movie this year it was too boring for me
to finish but the position of the movie
was clearly that this guy who got
multiple armies massacred broke every
oath he ever made and murders a dude in
a church is the good guy because he's a
king and kings are glorious HBO's Game
of Thrones is probably the property that
does the most to shape and express what
we think of aristocrats and monarchs
today on the surface it's super cynical
it's largely about a pack of murderous
incestuous thugs stabbing everybody in
the back and slaughtering tens of
thousands to get what they want but in
the world of the show the worst thing
about the bad guys is the fact that they
get in the way of nice people like the
Starks and Queen Daenerys who deserve to
rule there is clearly something at the
root of our culture that still yearns
for a good king to come and save us Game
of Thrones Braveheart and most other pop
culture depictions of royalty include
bad kings and good Kings but they still
depict worlds where rule by Kings can be
fundamentally good and right it isn't
not now and it never was what makes the
favourites so great is the way that it
depicts what day-to-day rule by kings
and queens was almost certainly really
like the vast majority of the time the
gorgeous settings are warped by fisheye
lens that makes everything revolve
around whatever desperately unhappy
schemer the particular scene is focused
on ruled by kings and queens
warps countries and people as well from
once Hollywood has produced a film that
shows what monarchy actually is the
favorite is a horror movie and it's a
very very good one everyone involved
with the picture should be applauded for
getting it out there thanks for watching
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