Anora (2024)

[SeanC]

Sean Baker's latest film, the winner of the 2024 Palme d'Or, and poised to be his most commercially successful feature to date by some way, as well as possibly his big awards breakthrough. As someone who has liked Baker's work to varying degrees, but often come away with at least one prominent niggle about a given film (or, in the case of Tangerine, finding it mostly annoying but with an unforgettable ending), I would provisionally cite this as his best work to date. While not flawless (I might agree with the critique offered elsewhere that the middle of the film perhaps goes on a bit too long), it's funny, emotionally affecting when it wants to be, and centered on a great lead performance.

That performance is Mikey Madison (probably heretofore most recognizable to filmgoers for getting a memorably extended demise at the hands of Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) as the title character, a Brooklyn exotic dancer who finds herself hired by Ivan, the immature son of a Russian oligarch. Embarking on an extended bacchanal that culminates in a marriage proposal, she soon finds herself in a sticky situation as Ivan's parents react poorly to their son's imprudent match and dispatch a frustrated subordinate and his two minions to help sort the situation out.

The above may sound like the film turns into a thriller, but that is not really the case. For the most part, Anora is set in a decidedly comic register, with Madison's brassy heroine and the henchman trio's antics supplying a fair number of chuckles, both from verbal and physical humour. As with Baker's other films, the details of the setting and of the lives of the characters feel very authentic, even when (as here) the scenario at times feels like a particularly ribald screwball comedy. The ending of the film cracks into a different emotional space, again powered by Madison and an affecting supporting turn by Yura Borisov, who quietly sneaks up on you over the course of the second half of the story. If Baker has always been concerned with America's working poor and strivers, here for the first time he brings the overarching villains of the piece into the picture: the ultra-wealthy, embodied by the Zakharov family.

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 11/16/2024 at 5:31 PM, SeanC said:

an affecting supporting turn by Yura Borisov, who quietly sneaks up on you over the course of the second half of the story.

No kidding.  There was a great scene where Ani was talking to someone offscreen.  She and Igor were in the shot, but only a portion of her face, and all of Igor's as he watched the conversation.  Fantastic.

And, that fight in the mansion?  Epic. 

[Browncoat]

This was just so heartbreaking. 

[StatisticalOutlier]

And about the guy who played Igor--I spent the whole movie thinking he looks just like Mike Judge.  Then I looked him up and realized he was in this Finnish movie called Compartment No. 6 that I drove 50 miles on surface streets in Chicago to see.  And on the 50-mile drive back, I was really glad I'd gone.

If you like what he did with his part in Anora, you'll probably enjoy Compartment No. 6, too.

 

 

[SeanC]

After a somewhat underwhelming start to awards season at the Golden Globes, Anora emerges with the steel chair to batter its opponents and become the award season frontrunner, winning DGA, PGA, and the Critics Choice Award for Best Picture (though weirdly, nothing else at that ceremony) in one weekend.

[One4Sorrow2TooBad]

 

[Affogato]

I liked this well enough, I saw it a while ago and I remember not being overwhelmed by its brilliance.  I was bappy to have seen it.  I do absolutely get the American working class cleaning up after the oligarchs, whatever their immaturities, and the final outcome that doesn’t change much for anyone. Like real life right now. I wonder if this will be ine of the movies that is remembered fondly in retrospective lists. 
 

 

[EtheltoTillie]

Big sweep at the Oscars last night. I was not wildly impressed. 

[One4Sorrow2TooBad]

I was gobsmacked that Anora won so many awards.  I was glad to see that Take That's song, Greatest Day , was in it,unfortunately it wasn't allowed to be up for any Oscar due to the fact it wasn't written specifically just for the movie.  

[StatisticalOutlier]

I was shocked when the producer said they made the movie for $6 million.  It was shot in 40 days, including ten shooting days just for the fight in the mansion

I really appreciated Sean Baker's speech (and his joke about the mess of footage he had to deal with as the editor).  He walks the walk--he shot this one on 35mm film, and it was shown on 35mm in some theaters.  Even though his first movie, Tangerine, was shot using three iphones.  But he did that not because it was all he could afford or whatever, but because he liked the look of what the iphone would produce--it was an aesthetic choice.

As for this movie, I found this quote from the cinematographer enlightening:

"We decided that the first part of this journey needed to convey a certain heightened reality, of youthful exuberance and vitality, via freedom of the camera and through color and warmth in the image, almost like a romantic comedy. For the second part, we determined to punctuate the dramatic change in the story by shooting with quite a different visual language, more like a gangster film and by shifting into a colder and more austere color palette."

https://www.kodak.com/en/motion/blog-post/anora/

I was really happy when the Oscars showed just a quick cut of Anora screaming during the fight.  That must have been a wild ten days.

 

[One4Sorrow2TooBad]

Watch the world come alive tonight!!! Anora sweeps The Oscars!