In the terminally long run-up to the Oscars, a number of films have scooped up praise and awards in the various precursor awards shows. However, Sean Baker’s “Anora” seems to have the biggest head of steam going into Hollywood’s biggest night, which is airing Sunday (March 2).
“Anora” has won numerous accolades, including the Palme d’Or at Cannes, two BAFTAs, as well as Producers, Directors and Writers Guild awards. The film has received six Academy Awards nominations, including Best Picture. Usually, all of this hype indicates which movie is likely to win the big Best Picture and “Anora” is trending that way.
But here’s the thing: “Anora” shouldn’t win Best Picture.
If I’m being totally honest … it shouldn’t even have been nominated.
The movie follows Anora aka Ani (Mikey Madison), a young sex worker, and her whirlwind marriage to Vanya, the childish son of a Russian oligarch, and the subsequent attempt by his family and their goons to break the marriage up.
Simply, the movie falls apart once the goons arrive. “Anora” is marketed as and talked about as a dark comedy. I’ve even seen the word screwball thrown around, which … sure, if you think the living room scene is a “Looney Tunes” moment and not the male gaze put on a kidnapping, then yes, it’s screwball.
I’ll put out some praise here. Baker makes visually interesting movies to look at going back to “Tangerine” and “Florida Project,” which broke him into the mainstream. The cinematography in his films is always great.
But in “Anora,” after the Russians show up, it’s a repetitive drawl. The opening act of sex, drugs, repeat at least had pace.
The middle hour of this far-too-long movie is simply a roving set of scenes with people yelling at each other that doesn’t move the plot forward. Any pace is utterly destroyed as Ani and the goons attempt to track down Vanya. Somehow we’ve landed in “The Hangover” with fewer laughs.
As noted by the success of “Uncut Gems,” I may be an outlier in that I don’t find it interesting when the only way characters are shown to communicate is through extended screaming at one another, especially when those characters lack substance. The conversational volume in “Anora” is set to 11 and never really comes back down.
I find that boring.
Perhaps if Baker earned whatever Ani’s arc was supposed to be, the yelling could have had a point. With an accent that distractingly refuses to stay in place, Ani is portrayed as street-smart, yet she still gets suckered by Vanya, who was played as though he is brain-damaged.
Other than her dream of a Cinderella castle, there is nothing to keep her attached to Vanya other than blind hope, which feels opposite to how Madison is playing her.
For me, the film is lost in excess and never actually shows you what’s hiding beneath the glitter. The final scene hints at something deeper, but mostly Baker just seems to like ending his movies with someone crying.
None of which is deserving of an Oscar, but “Crash” is a Best Picture winner, so what do I know?
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