Also overheard some old lady on the way out say “well that wasn’t pretty woman” and some other lady said “it wasn’t even ugly woman!”
Apparently one of the minor actresses in this movie, Ivy Wolk, has been getting a lot of shit on Twitter for their past offensive tweets and TikTok’s? There was a NEON post titled “Meet Crystal” which tagged the actress (Ivy) that they had to turn off comments for because of the amount of hate. Then a musician I follow, Eliza McLamb, posted this: Has anyone else been seeing stuff about this in their feed? Vulture made an entire article about it too: Why Do People Hate This Minor Character Actress From Anora?
It was more fun talking about Baker films when he wasn't as famous. We are going to have to re-litigate tweets he liked and some of the behaviors of his non-actors and amateurs every single time.
I was going to try to see this and Juror #2 over the weekend but I might have a date. I would usually prioritize a movie but I saw a white hair today so time is starting to get scarce.
Mostly loved this. A little peeved at the ending sort of amounting to “she only knows how to process her emotions through sex”. I’m sure that’s not the most generous reading of it, but I just thought so much of the movie was developing this rich complex portrait of her and the ending took some of that away for me. Too many gorgeous shots in this to count though.
This was fantastic. Wife and I went in fairly blind and had a great time. When the credits hit, our theater was straight up silent. Haven’t had that happen in a long time.
This was one of my favorite things about it. That I never felt she was in legitimate danger. And I think that was made intentional in a lot of ways and part of the charm of the movie. I didn't have any anxiety watching it like a Safdie Brothers film. The henchman didn't have guns, they were just like goofy uncles. I never felt the tension that this would build up to a violent moment. That would be another movie, another director. Granted this is my first Sean Baker, but I loved the tone of the film and I'm excited to watch more.
Ten thousand dollars to pay her off is really strange. This is a family worth billions of dollars and they don't even make her sign a non-disclosure agreement. It should have been at least a million dollars, and that would make her decision more morally complex since she is grappling with the idea of Ivan being completely cut off his family.
I think the part of the movie i liked the best was how Annie gets swept into something she doesn’t, couldn’t possibly understand. She thinks she’s hit the lottery, when she very obviously hasn’t. Then she thinks she’s going to win some kind of game against his family, when she clearly has no chance. She is never in a million years going to come out on top in this situation. She is going to be treated as a nuisance by an unfathomably wealthy family that doesn’t see her as truly human - from Ivan to his parents. I mentioned this elsewhere in this thread, but i absolutely loved how it even juked out the audience at the theater I saw it with, in that it’s the only movie i can recall having ever seen in which the audience reacted multiple times based on preconceived “movie logic” only for that logic to not hold in the movie (Annie saying she never signed a pre-nup only for that to not matter in the slightest, the set-up for a happy ending with Igor that is absolutely not going to happen, etc.). $10,000 is nothing to this family, and she could absolutely demand more and probably get it because i don’t think there’s a material difference between 10K and 1M to them. But she will not make that demand. Similarly, the family could likely just have her killed, and i wondered if this would happen, but i think to them she’s not even worth that kind of potential headache when their unfathomable wealth and resources can just bury her. The family thinks that all she amounts to is an annoying inconvenience, and in the end she comes to the realization that they’re right - there’s nothing she has or can do* to come out on top in the situation in the face of limitless resources. The only concessions people in her class should expect are the things they can take (like Igor stealing the wedding ring). *Well, except to inspire and launch a revolution which overthrows the global ruling class, but i don’t expect that from a Baker film. EDIT: sorry for the long post
I definitely get this read, but to me, that wasn’t what that scene was about - she’s spent the movie denying reality and inventing fairytales in her head, and now she’s being crushed by reality. She thinks she’s going to walk away with billions of dollars, entering an entirely different plane of existence. Instead, she gets $10K and a cold reminder of her place in the world. I think she then tries to convince herself she’s going to at least get this romance with Igor out of it, also in a fairytale “the right guy was there all along” type way, but i imagine that feels hollow and difficult compared to what she’d convinced herself her life was going to be just a day before.