Welcome back to the blog readers. As you guys currently know, I am on a "Best Picture Expedition" in which I venture to watch all 10 Best Picture nominees before the Oscars ceremony in March, and I am currently 80% of the way there so far. I have been interested in this film since it took home the prestigious Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, and especially since it won big this past weekend with the PGA, DGA, and Critics' Choice Award shows. Would I feel the same as these governing bodies though? Stick around to find out.
Anora was written and directed by Sean Baker. The film stars Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, Yura Borisov, Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan, and Aleksei Serebryakov. In the film, a beleaguered sex worker named Anora ends up marrying the son of a Russian oligarch, and chaos soon ensues when his father appears and attempts to annul the marriage.
Having rented this film (meaning I will be seeing 8 of the 10 Best Picture nominees in theaters), I truly had no idea what to expect going into it. I also have truly never seen the work of director Sean Baker or star Mikey Madison, but after watching this I might have to now. This film was absolutely wild from start to finish and I truly have no idea where to start. I do want to praise the performance of Mikey Madison and what the film is trying to say, but I do think the film is a bit long in places.
I do want to give credit where credit is due, and I truly was unaware of Mikey Madison's work. Even though she has had small roles in things I really like such as Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood (2019) and Scream (2022), she has never been someone I would point out in a film...until now. To me, this was a star-making performance and one that I will remember for a long time. As sex worker Anora Mikheeva, she brings a whole bunch of things to this role that I did not expect to see from her. From the sexiness and suave of her life as a stripper to the fear and panic she displays when the home invasion happens to the absolute power she displays when she realizes that things are not going her way, Madison absolutely deserved to be one of the five nominees for Best Actress.
Before I go on with the rest of this review, I do want to mention the nomination of Yura Borisov for Best Supporting Actor. I do appreciate that the Oscars are diversifying their nomination fields, but I personally do not think he did enough in this film for me to warrant a Best Supporting Actor nomination. Until the final 30 minutes of the film, all he does is just stand there and act tough without doing anything of substance. If I had a vote in the Academy, I definitely would have voted someone in in his place like Javier Bardem for Dune: Part Two or Stanley Tucci for Conclave (both 2024).
Now I do want to commend Sean Baker for delivering a solid script and having something to say about power, wealth, and youth. It is a well-known fact that wealth and power can dictate a whole lot of conversations and industries, and that is not better displayed than it is right now in the government. Wealth in this case is power, and I think the main consensus of this film is that wealth buys power and that power is control over body and soul. That may not be what everybody takes away from this film but that is certainly what I took away from it.
I want to end the review by taking about the glaring pacing issues that exist for me in this film. It starts off well, getting 15 minutes of Ani's life until she meets this son of a Russian oligarch and we spend the next 30 seeing the relationship build until the marriage, which is another montage. Then, there is a pointlessly long home invasion scene (25 minutes!) that begins dragging on and on and on. Then, we literally spend the next 30 minutes following Ani and Toros and the cronies trying to find Vanya, and that is finally when the drama starts getting good and the emotion starts setting in. This film could have been like 25-30 minutes shorter while displaying the same messaging.
In conclusion, Anora is a wild and sexy film that sees Mikey Madison totally break out and earn that Oscar nomination, all while giving a powerful message about power. Thank you all for reading, and I will see you for the next post.
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