Anora - Sean Baker

I've only seen 5 of Sean Baker's films and would rank as follows:

1. The Florida Project 9/10
2. Take Out - 8/10
3. Tangerine - 8/10
4. Anora - 7/10
5. Red Rocket - 6/10

Haven't seen the movie but I have faith it's probably better than most best picture winners. Sean Baker is one of the few American directors that have emerged in the last ten to fifteen years that actually gives me hope that smaller films can still make an impact on both a filmmaking level as well as a crowd pleasing one. A rarity these days.

This was decent, a little long for my taste, you can find much worse BP winners.

The first and final third of the film were good cinema. The middle part, where it turns into a black comedy mouse chase, was a little stupid and the dialogue was too redundant with constant "m.f." bombs coming from Mikey Madison's character alone.

I still enjoyed the film and gave it a solid 4 stars.

Not sure if it is really Oscar worthy, but it's still one of the best films I've seen in 2024.

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“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!” ~ Rocky Balboa

The Florida Project was amazing. I look forward to seeing more of Baker's films.

Anora seems to be taking over the "Rate the Last Movie You Saw" thread at the moment, so I thought I may try and bring the conversation over here haha

Anora seems fine as Best Picture given the other nominees, but I won't be surprised if this movie is largely forgotten in less than a decade.

We shall see, but this seems at least plausible. Anecdotally, I think this happens when a film's win is partially/significantly attributed to something zeitgeisty, some cause or class or issue that the film is getting credit for being about.

With the exception of Chariots of Fire, we could probably argue that is every movie that's ever won.

Well, it's the Internet, so people could (and would) argue anything, but I think at least some of the arguments would be pretty bad.

I'll preemptively concede that every moderately intelligent person can link one thing to another if they're sufficiently motivated (see: every conspiracy theory), but what I'm thinking of is something that requires zero steps. I could probably BS my way through arguing that Birdman is actually about celebrity culture or mental health or whatever, but then I look at Parasite, whose relevance to the moment requires no intellectual lift whatsoever, and a distinction becomes clear.

That is kind of a fun game, though, I'm realizing: just scrolling through the list of winners and seeing which ones connect easily and which require some thinking.

I'll also argue against myself, anyway, and say that a lot of the things I'm thinking of have windows of relevance, IE: at least a span of a few years where some film addressing the issue would qualify. And in some cases, that window can be quite large indeed: Crash was 2004 and Green Book was 2018. And if another film about race relations and/or reconciliation comes along in 10 years it'll probably still feel relevant then.

Compared to a BP like Parasite or Baker film, The Florida Project; Anora doesn’t come close. Uncut Gems did this type of film better, without the benefit of a social cause.

Can we all agree this was the contingency plan for the Emilia Perez fiasco? Without that controversy, we wouldn’t be breaking vows of silence to talk about Anora.

For folks in SoCal - the Academy will be screening a rare 35mm print of Anora on March 16th....

Now streaming on Hulu!

In case you missed it, Mikey Madison made her debut hosting SNL over the weekend, and seems to have a pretty good time with it.

I will have to check that out.

>Compared to a BP like Parasite or Baker film, The Florida Project; Anora doesn’t come close. Uncut Gems did this type of film better, without the benefit of a social cause.

There is no social cause in Anora. It's just a fun movie. Also, come on, Parasite's tone is all over the place. Like Anora, it has its share of flaws.

>Can we all agree this was the contingency plan for the Emilia Perez fiasco?

I still don't think it was ever going to win. We've seen movies gets lots of noms from boisterous Netflix campaigns but it doesn't translate to wins. Most folks still agree it just wasn't that great a movie, regardless of controversies.