LCJ is hilarious. i’m let down by the fact that he didn’t reuse his “men are objectified” take for this movie like when he posted about joy ride
Thought this was mostly good, but not great. Kind of bummed. Possibly my fault for going into it with my expectations set too high. Mikey Madison was phenomenal, though.
this was a blast and I loved how every single character could have had their own movie like when Ivy Wolk called that guy a Helen Keller ass bitch
I had a lot of fun with this film. Mikey was great and I came away also really liking the guy who played Igor.
Seated for a 35mm screening, just drove 90 minutes haha. Gotta be the only person under like 60 in here, good ol Tucson, AZ
Loved this, what a blast. I knew it was going to be a fun watch but I didn’t expect so much of the goofball physical comedy stuff, which took me by surprise in a good way. I reeeeeally felt it start to drag while Annie and the Armenian dudes (new band name I call it) were looking for Ivan - felt like an unnecessarily long stretch. The 35mm print was beautiful. Mikey Madison will certainly be getting her flowers for her performance here, as she should, but truly the entire main cast threw everything into this
The scene where Toros is holding the baby at the baptism and receives the picture of the marriage certificate and just screams NO was the biggest laugh for me
I think the funniest was probably when Igor is breaking the glass in the candy shop - the one glass jar on top of the counter that he simply pokes at had me dying. But then also after he does that and the rest of the gang tries to call Ivan, you can see Igor in the background eating popcorn out of the machine that he just broke lol Also the courthouse scene was absolute lunacy
My main thought throughout the whole thing was that if I didn’t know this was a Sean Baker film, I would have guessed it was a Safdie Brothers film.
Liked but did not love this. I am begging “prestige” directors to take some cues from comedies. The entire home invasion sequence could have been half as long and twice as funny with more adept pacing. I also agree that their search could have included maybe 3-4 less places. And things really dragged when Ivan’s parents showed up. Yes, there were some crucial moments on the airplane stairs and when Igor tries to get an apology, but the rest was superfluous, imo. Great performances all around though!!
I would love to know how much time passed between the "I don't have an account on Instagram because I'm an adult!" bar scene and the "That's the problem with kids these days - you don't respect your elders!" diner scene, because it felt like at least 15 minutes that could have been edited down to 5
this is in one of the main, biggest theaters at my cinemark. confusing decision but i’m not upset about it
I very much disagree with this. I think a lot of the power of the film, at least for me, comes from going on this emotional journey with her and having all of those sections be so lengthy does a better job at showing the shit she had to put up with. It let's you feel the repetition and frustration of having to look for Ivan, then how enraging and depressing having to go along with the divorce must have been. The home invasion sequence was very funny but I don't think that was the sole purpose of the scene and I think cutting it down to make it funnier would lose the weight of what is actually happening. I can see why some people would prefer a shorter edit but for me it just makes that final breakdown all the more devastating. I thought it was brilliant.
Also this was way funnier than I expected it to be. The biggest laugh for me was after they smashed up the sweet shop when the owner came back in with the "what the hell?".
The push in on the owner’s face made me laugh very hard, as did Igor pushing the bat into the final jar to break it. Also, related to your post above, Red Rocket is my favorite Baker film (that I’ve seen) because it is not only his funniest, but also his most thematically coherent, imo. And even that one has the unnecessary subplot about his neighbor going to jail for the car accident, which doesn’t tie back in as a reason for him to get kicked out of town by the dealers. I understand Baker’s desire for “realism,” and the fact that the Neighbor’s plot may not interact with the dealers’ in real life, but I think sometimes he forgets that films are fake. And ultimately I would’ve loved the script for Anora to give us a better understanding of WHY she wants to stay with this dude, WHY she falls for him, IF it’s just for money or something else, and WHY, if the things she likes about him are so superficial (the massive partying sequence), does it hurt so much when she’s cast aside? I’d have been interested in more exploration of her naivety or why she decides to let her guard down. WHY, after he escapes the house, does she insist that he’s different than all of the other men she’s encountered in her life?
Why does it have to tie into the drug dealers? It is about establishing who he is and how he will ultimately betray everyone to get what he wants and to achieve his goals.
I saw this earlier today and it was great! I really hope Mikey gets a Best Actress nomination which I’m sure she will, she’s predicted right now to be in the lead for Best Actress.
It doesn’t have to, I just thought it was a superfluous beat in an overlong movie. A movie that I love! I just miss when movies/shows/albums were a little shorter haha
Maybe this is a surface read but I think she’s just a super guarded & stubborn person that finally let her walls down to a guy that afforded her the illusion of feeling like more than just a sex object, and when the legitimacy of their relationship came into question she fell into denial not because she necessarily loved Ivan or his money, but out of a deep seated fear that she may be unloveable. If none of their love was real then maybe it’s confirmation to the question she’s been shielding herself from, which is whether or not she is deserving of love, a functional family, a stronger support system, or a life other than the one she feels she’s been dealt