The 18th-century court of Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) provides the setting for Yorgos Lanthimos’s absurdist black comedy about power struggles and palace intrigue. Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone are delicious as the two ruthless favorites of the monarch, who try to outmaneuver each other at all costs. Their days are taken up with shooting practice, lobster racing, pelting men with fruit, and slipping poison into unattended cups of tea. Best of all, there isn’t a damsel in distress in sight.
Phantom Thread (2017)
Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection
In his final role to date, Daniel Day-Lewis plays the delightfully named Reynolds Woodcock, a mercurial couturier (loosely based on Charles James) in 1950s London who makes a young waitress (Vicky Krieps in her breakout role) his muse. It garnered six Oscar nominations, including best picture, director (Paul Thomas Anderson), actor, supporting actress (Lesley Manville as Reynolds’s withering sister, Cyril), and score (by Jonny Greenwood), and won for Mark Bridges’s luxurious costume design.
Love & Friendship (2016)
Photo: Shutterstock
