Anora

⭐ 8.5/10

This year's Best Picture winner, and while I think the slate was a bit weaker and this wasn't my favourite of the crop, it was a unique movie that grows in my mind the more distance I have from it. I didn't really think it would clean up so many major awards like it did when I watched it, but the level of artistry and vision is clear throughout.

The movie pretty cleanly divides into 3 parts.  Part one is the stripper princess story. It is fast paced, with loud music and lots of sex. Lots, in a way that is quite uncomfortable but I think effective, putting you in the world of an escort. She meets a young Russian boy whose parents are insanely wealthy, he hires her as a full time girlfriend, eventually marries her. This all happens in the first 40 minutes, and its a high octane rags-to-riches story where you are really rooting for Anora. He seemingly makes her happy, even if their lifestyle seems unsustainable. This was my least favourite act.

Part 2 is like Uncut Gems - still high octane but now with more yelling. We have a group of misfits on a hunt for the missing husband after he flees the wrath of his parents, and I think there are some truly hilarious parts here. It really is the unraveling of Anora's fairy tale, and it all takes place in a single night. I thought the performances here were all really great, and Anora's demeanor starts to completely shift to one of frustration and sadness. We get a great look into the nightlife of a certain part of New York, and it feels completely authentic while also being completely inance.

The final section completely lets the air out of the balloon with some final confrontations. It's hard to feel any sense of justice or satisfaction in what is happening to Anora, and we are a long way from the drug-induced bliss of the first act. I think this is where Mikey Madison really shines, as well as the supporting cast. Real life crashes through, and the only takeaways I can have is that fairy tales aren't real and being poor sucks. Its completely sobering, and it is major whiplash to how this movie begins.

Hard to recommend because of how graphic the opening act of this movie is, but that section is the most forgettable part to me. The final scene goes complete tragedy, leaving me feeling more distraught when the credits rolled than I can remember feeling in any recent movie. To me it felt like a complete indictment of the sex-work industry and the brokenness that lives inside of it, and I felt gutted.  When I see clips online of this movie its always of the partying and mad-cap high-energy set pieces, but this stationary and stoic last scene will haunt me for a while, and be my lasting image of the movie. For a movie that can be so fun and over-the-top I think this ending is very bold, and the reason it won Best Picture.