Anora

Woah. Completely subverted my expectations and left me shocked all the way through. An electric haywire film with anxious energy coursing through your veins nonstop. It’s extremely impressive how this manages to be a commentary on so many societal flaws while still managing to have that sense of controlled thrill and chaos ever present throughout. Amazing performances all around and technically amazing. From the rippling edit of this film, rapid cuts to close ups and nonstop chaos that feels like you’re immersed into hell. Flashy camerawork and bright light cinematography that feels like a gold chain being flexed at you every time you see those bright lights of the club, the sun beaming, or the night life of the city. The club sequences are perfect for the thrill, as the pulsating music has to make people yell to be heard which heightens the adversity and adrenaline of the moment. So many calculated technical moves here from Baker and they all work seemingly perfectly. Mikey Madison is a spectacle in performance in this movie. Well deserved Oscar. Her sort of punctual and relentlessly angered portrayal of this character trapped in this situation only adds more to the tension and anxiety you feel in those scenes. It’s extremely vulnerable as well with her portaying a character 50 feet deep intro trouble of one of the most controversial industries. Beneath that anger is a deeply humanly flawed person seeking out help through her anger in a manner of desperation. Karren Karagulian was just as good as Madison in this film as well with his unrelenting vile character never backing down from the goal in the most awful ways of humanity possible. I always appreciate a strong portrayal of an unforgivable jerk, and that was one of them. Narratively there is so much to unpack here. Beyond the Safdie coded thrill of it all, there’s something so personal about this film and its take on the sex worker industry. Anora is a character despite all her struggles and faults you still root for because of this nasty system and people that are pitt against her and made her destined to be in a pit of demise. From the get go, you already knew that relationship they had was doomed all because of the objectifying of women that industry specifically brings and promotes for the most utterly shallow relationship. Ivan while seemingly charismatic and funny at the beginning, is a very despicable character underneath. Just another shallow rich man fulfilling his sexual addictions and pleasures through a desperate sex worker. The relationship was done from the start, but that hellish trip is just where it gets worse. That second and third act of ripping thrill I think also says a lot about overprotective parents and why they do these things, stemming from a legion of trauma during upbringing and a history of incidents that make you want to protect that child from bad situations like that as much as possible. But this film shows why that parenting style never prevails, especially when it’s too late as they’re an independent adult running wild by then. It’s truly crazy how Baker with this narrative and commentary was able to sprout this into an emotional drama, crime movie and thriller all at once. The film just relentlessly impressed me the way it bursted with energy and most importantly how it portrayed one of the most important problems of the male to female dynamic in modern society. Lust over love which is also one of the reasons they gaslit themselves into thinking they fell in love.  Today’s modern society is a gateway to gazing eyes at the provocative female traits and becoming obsessed with it. A simple pleasure like that can sprout into a hellish addiction and toxic personality. Beyond just a lust hungry person, Anora is a human trying to provide and struggle no more by making money through the industry that dosen't truly care about her emotionally. That alone says a lot about our society and where we stand to how we treat women in general. We normalize looking at them in this nasty animate object way to the point where it can be cash profit people make a hellish living off of. Others need to take a stand to this killing our society and mental perception of what love truly is and Sean Baker is contributing to taking that stand so bless his heart. This one will be in my head for a while