Thank you for contributing your review Tim and thank you for the last few years of awesome movie chats and keeping the creative energy and interests flowing!
I didn't like the movie and couldn't even watch it to the end. Despite the performance of the actors I still don't get why this movie got the Palm d'or over the Seeds of the Sacred Fig Tree.
Hear hear. Love this, and while I personally have a line where someone’s opinion becomes null to me, I think it’s important to surround yourself with people whose opinions differ, for sure. In terms of movies, I’m almost always the one who ends up not liking something that all my friends love (I’m super picky), which always has me in the defensive but it’s fine, I’m happy to have those conversations as they are almost always fun and engaging.
I'm on the I Like Anora side. I don't know what the movie "meant," though it was telling that as a sex worker, Anora was in control -- with her clients and even with her boss -- but once in a marriage with riches behind the husband, she lost all agency. She was reduced to lashing out futilely, only about to break noses. And the ending cry... perhaps realizing a return to her livelihood the only way forward. I'm not convinced of anything i just said, but that's the direction I'd look for "meaning."
Tim’s review reads as if he has the taste of the admiration to watch predictable, templated movies. This movie’s realism was too much for him, the screaming, the non linear story telling, and lack of the traditional happy ending. Meanwhile, Lucy hit it on the head. Great review of NOT the everyday cookie cutter movie! A movie with a real story you know that it probably happened a few times in slightly different ways that you would hear if you had a conversation with an exotic dancer.
I immediately felt it was a real life Cinderella and in real life there are no fairy tale endings. There is no end. There is always another day. I thought the ending was actually powerful. There is this realization by Anora that in all this 24/7 hustle to get material wealth that she sacrificed everything human about herself. At the end, she is right back where she is every morning before another grueling day. She doesn’t love this guy or any guy. I wonder if she asks herself, am I worth loving? What does love feel like? Lastly, I could be reaching but I also this film as anti capitalist as it shows someone working herself to the bone and she just she it seems like she is climbed out, the system and people running it were never going to let her rise up. So after all that, it’s a new day, what’s her next move? It’s daunting. That’s how life feels all lot of the time.
I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s anti-capitalist because she remains owning nothing (her work, her body, any material assets besides maybe the ring). Anora juxtaposes two minority archetypes, the foreign elite one-percent and a sex-worker who is a woman in Brighton Beach. The relationship dynamic is noisy, messy, and superfluous on both ends e.g. Toros and family minus Igor is as clueless and incompetent as Anora and friends are in trying to find Vanya both physically and also character-wise. The lack of coherence in this Substack review that argues as it as a flaw is what is essential to the comedy and tragedy. No one knows what they are doing or where they are going. It’s a rush of feelings and faces that fuck around and find out. I think we can like Anora but not love her because we all see she is very broken and we can never get close lest we want a verbal berating but we can love her vulnerability and truthfulness because that may be all she has left. Thank you, Lucy, for your post!
I could see how the movie loses its charm if you don't find the comedic/absurd parts funny. Fortunately I found them funny which really helped with the pace of the movie as well as the heavy themes. I'm still not sure about the ending though, something about it felt wrong to me. 🤷🏽♂️
Thanks for sharing and reading!
I love this piece. Thank you so much for the opportunity to share and for the amazing discussion.
Thank you for contributing your review Tim and thank you for the last few years of awesome movie chats and keeping the creative energy and interests flowing!
I didn't like the movie and couldn't even watch it to the end. Despite the performance of the actors I still don't get why this movie got the Palm d'or over the Seeds of the Sacred Fig Tree.
I didn’t like the movie at all either but the ending was the sole redeeming scene out of the whole thing, I’d say.
Hear hear. Love this, and while I personally have a line where someone’s opinion becomes null to me, I think it’s important to surround yourself with people whose opinions differ, for sure. In terms of movies, I’m almost always the one who ends up not liking something that all my friends love (I’m super picky), which always has me in the defensive but it’s fine, I’m happy to have those conversations as they are almost always fun and engaging.
I'm on the I Like Anora side. I don't know what the movie "meant," though it was telling that as a sex worker, Anora was in control -- with her clients and even with her boss -- but once in a marriage with riches behind the husband, she lost all agency. She was reduced to lashing out futilely, only about to break noses. And the ending cry... perhaps realizing a return to her livelihood the only way forward. I'm not convinced of anything i just said, but that's the direction I'd look for "meaning."
Loved Anora. Not Sean Baker's best - for me that's Tangerine - but a treat of a film. Thank you for the side by side reviews, fun to read.
Tim’s review reads as if he has the taste of the admiration to watch predictable, templated movies. This movie’s realism was too much for him, the screaming, the non linear story telling, and lack of the traditional happy ending. Meanwhile, Lucy hit it on the head. Great review of NOT the everyday cookie cutter movie! A movie with a real story you know that it probably happened a few times in slightly different ways that you would hear if you had a conversation with an exotic dancer.
I immediately felt it was a real life Cinderella and in real life there are no fairy tale endings. There is no end. There is always another day. I thought the ending was actually powerful. There is this realization by Anora that in all this 24/7 hustle to get material wealth that she sacrificed everything human about herself. At the end, she is right back where she is every morning before another grueling day. She doesn’t love this guy or any guy. I wonder if she asks herself, am I worth loving? What does love feel like? Lastly, I could be reaching but I also this film as anti capitalist as it shows someone working herself to the bone and she just she it seems like she is climbed out, the system and people running it were never going to let her rise up. So after all that, it’s a new day, what’s her next move? It’s daunting. That’s how life feels all lot of the time.
I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s anti-capitalist because she remains owning nothing (her work, her body, any material assets besides maybe the ring). Anora juxtaposes two minority archetypes, the foreign elite one-percent and a sex-worker who is a woman in Brighton Beach. The relationship dynamic is noisy, messy, and superfluous on both ends e.g. Toros and family minus Igor is as clueless and incompetent as Anora and friends are in trying to find Vanya both physically and also character-wise. The lack of coherence in this Substack review that argues as it as a flaw is what is essential to the comedy and tragedy. No one knows what they are doing or where they are going. It’s a rush of feelings and faces that fuck around and find out. I think we can like Anora but not love her because we all see she is very broken and we can never get close lest we want a verbal berating but we can love her vulnerability and truthfulness because that may be all she has left. Thank you, Lucy, for your post!
I could see how the movie loses its charm if you don't find the comedic/absurd parts funny. Fortunately I found them funny which really helped with the pace of the movie as well as the heavy themes. I'm still not sure about the ending though, something about it felt wrong to me. 🤷🏽♂️