Anora

Second watch, caught more than the first, love it just as much. At the end it’s like she wanted to make their relationship a cheap exchange so 1. She wouldn’t owe him anything, 2. because it meant if he could be kind to her and care for her without wanting anything in exchange, it makes everything she had just gone through worse because at any point one of them; Ivan, his parents, Toros, could have showed empathy for her. But they didn’t. and 3. because it’s scary for her to be genuine, without her mask. Without heels or lashes or makeup or costume or attitude. She wanted to sink back into that persona so that she stayed removed from whatever was happening around her. Obviously the whole undertone for this movie is class-difference and wealth disparity. Igor and Anora are always in frame together; the gopnik and the night butterfly, in the same boat: dragged along in the rich man’s game. All night long while looking for Ivan, Toros and Garmin inconvenience the working class; smashing up the candy store just to get Tom and Crystal to call Ivan: “I’m so fucked.”, disturbing Aleks at the restaurant “You guys are going to cost me my job here.”, impeding the guy who towed their car “It’s my first week on the job.”, disturbing random people and berating them for having no respect and no work ethic when they are sitting in a diner in the early AM. Even when they go to Vegas to get the marriage annulled, Galina treats the worker like shit. It’s Igor who stands up for Anora, saying she deserves an apology. The whole film Igor and Anora inch closer together as Anora’s potential future as an oligarch’s wife becomes more and more unlikely. He’s the only one that sees her, he’s the only one that looks. I’m obsessed with them.