Anora
Anora starts off by flashing you (literally) with its dreamy atmosphere, where dim lights and bold colors pulls you into a world so filled with aspirations and the fleeting desire of what we thought we wanted that we live moment to moment not thinking about tomorrow.
But the morning after when the dim lights turns bright, and the world gets less colorful, we see the world is just as maladjusted as it's always been.
Anora is this thrilling adventure where both the journey and destination matters. Anora makes you feel like you're also out on the street all tired and bothered, yet the feeling of excitement and the familiar chaos is all still present. Characters learn and grow, the camera pans to their faces before moving on as if there's more to them and each subtle look we give, the more we take from them. There's more to people than our initial impressions and we just got to keep on looking.
The perfect film to watch with your friends except my friends who all turned their heads at me when we all realized how much nudity and intimacy scenes were in this LIKE AS IF I WAS THE ONE WHO DIRECTED THIS AND WANTED THIS SPECIFICALLY.
In a way, the dysfunctional "friend" group in this film reminded me of mine. I'm the victim, I'm Anora.
I got to see this on my birthday! Maybe this film isn't quite what I would consider a strong 5 star film for me but perhaps watching this film with my wonderful (5 star) friends may have influenced me. 😭🫶