2024--Anora, Sean Baker
Nominated: The Brutalist, A Complete Unknown, Conclave, Dune: Part Two, Emilia Perez, I'm Still Here, Nickel Boys, The Substance, Wicked
Should Have Won: Nosferatu
Be sure to see: Longlegs, Lisa Frankenstein, Maxxxine, Saturday Night
"It's classic Ivan. I've been dealing with his shit since he was six years old. And now his parents are going to kill me and my family will never talk to me again,"--Toros
Well, if nothing else, Anora has the best opening shot in best picture history. It's just a slow motion shot of women performing lap dances. I'm not against this kind of movie, and not really opposed to one winning best picture, but it does make me wonder if you could go back 80 years and tell Humphrey Bogart or Bette Davis a movie abut a stripper turned prostitute will win best picture, what would they say?
The story is simple enough. Anora, the stripper turned prostitute mentioned, meets Ivan at her club. She goes to his house for a job and discovers his father is Nikolai Zakharov, an oligarch (or rich business leader, as Google informed me). She agrees to pose as his girlfriend for one week for a fee. They fall in love and marry so that Ivan won't have to move to Russia. His father catches wind of this and doesn't approve. That's it; nothing too complicated.
For a good portion of the movie it is just parties and sex scenes and I really didn't know where it was heading to warrant a best picture Oscar. it picked up with two henchmen (?) show up to try to keep Ivan from marrying Anora. In this scene , Ivan flees the house leaving his new bride alone with the two guys. A third is eventually called in to help and this guy turned out to be my favorite character. His name is Toros and I guess he's like what Tom Hagen is in The Godfather--not in the family but handles its business. He reminded me very much of the cook in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre in that his actions toward Anora are empathetic, aggressive, then empathetic again. When he arrives, the two men have Anora tied up because she went on a tirade after Ivan left, breaking household items and one of the men's noses. Toros is sentimental to her situation, then turns because of the reason he had been sent, then nice, then not. Should Anora trust him? Should the audience trust him? He's clearly not on her side yet is a little more attentive to her needs than the other two are. This entire segment from when the first two men arrive to when Anora and the three men leave to search for Ivan is funny, scary, heart-pounding, and depressing all at the same time. It is my favorite scene.
Recently, I have seen some winners that have reminded me of movies from the past. 2019's winner Parasite made me think of multiple films. In Anora, there is a line very similar to what Butch says in Pulp Fiction. Anora says Americans do not give meanings to names which is also what Butch says to the cab driver in Pulp Fiction. So a movie that had lots of nudity, reminded me of Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Pulp Fiction, gave me many different emotions, and made me care about the characters? Yes, I liked it. But best picture? Nah. The Academy Awards have been heading in a weird direction the past decade or so. Mikey Madison, who played Anora, won best actress. I'd say that a prostitute winning best actress is a big step but 34 years ago Julia Roberts was nominated for her role as a prostitute in Pretty Woman. She didn't win though. Kathy Bates won for Misery that year. Hookers and psychopaths. Now that is an idea for a blog right there.
