I stopped taking the Oscars seriously in 1999 when Steven Spielberg won Best Director, but his epic Saving Private Ryan did not win Best Picture. Wouldn’t the “Best” Director have directed the “Best” Picture? No, the forgettable, Harvey Weinstein-produced Shakespeare in Love took the glory, and you can now find DVD copies of it near the compost bins at Home Depot.
The year prior, the Oscars defined what we now call safe, traditional Oscar bait when they gave The English Patient Best Picture over Fargo. The English Patient is now used as a non-addictive remedy for insomnia.
I like how the Academy has gradually steered away from awarding banalities like The King’s Speech and The Artist by acknowledging indie hits like Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), Moonlight, The Shape of Water, Parasite, and Everything Everywhere All at Once. However, dumping statues on Sean Baker’s auteurial passion project, Anora, is overstepping it.
Even after a second viewing, I culminate Anora as nothing more than screaming f-bombs, incessant vaping, and soft porn sex. Despicable, contextless characters, brusque encounters, and Russian accent fixations eclipse any semblance of satire on the disillusionment of American wealth. Aside from a captivating Brighton Beach setting and a hilarious scene with a Russian Orthodox priest, this meandering mess is far from tolerable, let alone Oscar material.
I’ve enjoyed Sean Baker’s natural, improvisational style before, and The Florida Project (2017) is one of my favorite movies of all time. Yet, even after vicariously viewing Anora through the Academy panel’s eyes, I’m still shocked this thing won five Oscars.
Am I alone on this? Was 2024 that bad a year for movies?
Thank you for letting me vent,
RB
Reely Bernie 
Anora isn’t something I’d watch multiple times, but it did keep me talking for weeks after I saw it. I can applaud filmmakers who can make good movies on their own with a small budget. Even if they’re not always my kind of movies. I probably wouldn’t have given Anora the Oscar in any other year, but I accepted it as long as it wasn’t a pandering mess like Emilia Perez. Plus I’m happy that I reviewed Anora the same day that it won Best Picture.
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Great to hear from you, MMM. The small budget indie filmmakers always get my praise and admiration before the mainstream banalities, and Sean Baker is one of my faves. But Anora’s contextless characters screaming amid nothing but self-induced debauchery repelled me before I could fathom any possible meaning behind the mess. Also, you know when actors’ characters might be so despicable, you resent them both? That sums it up for me too. Different strokes for different folks. If anything, I left 2024 very disappointed in its movies. It can only go up, I hope. Always good to hear from you! Happy week!
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I couldn’t fathom the fervour the Academy had for Anora. Five Oscars was too much. It wasn’t the strongest contender in any of the categories. I wouldn’t say it’s a bad film. It has its merits, but far from Best Picture quality even in a bad year. So yeah, a very disappointing 97th Oscars. Which one of the ten would you have voted for?
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Gosh, it was such a weak list… Probably Dune: Part 2, Conclave, and Wicked in that order of preference. But, yes, maybe Anora was the most unique of the bunch, albeit annoying, redundant, and despicable, haha. Great points, lifeinthedark.
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I couldn’t agree more with everything you have written. I saw this at the cinema a month or so back and wondered how it was on the Oscars radar let alone being a contender and then winning! There was absolutely not one character I rooted for (bad word). It was as though it was A.I generated to get the most amount of shallow, yet Oscar interest and represent the ‘alleged’ minorities ie the sex community to sing its praise. I was hoping for ‘Complete Unknown’ or ‘Dune 2’ to walk away, but of course that was never going to happen.
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Totally agree. I feel like the subjective/political Oscar pendulum swings to the extreme to make up for conventional bait. Just a filthy picture. Now, a Best filthy Picture. Nice work, Academy!
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No words escape me to describe how tripe is this movie. At least time will tell as it always does. I couldn’t recommend more highly ‘Mucize’ (2015) free on you tube from Turkey which i just wrote about. Now, that’s a movie. Easily top 50.
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Too true, Bernie. Oscars are more a Hollywood love-in that a barometer of relative merit. Good fun, but wouldn’t take them too seriously.
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Good conversation starter, nothing more, haha
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Yo Bern!
A Bargar recommendation…..
We gave it a shot….
Was it as BAD as The Swimmer? No
Was it as disgusting as Hellraiser? No
BUT, this is an Academy Award winner?
C’mon…. Really?
And with 38 years in TV & Radio business, we all used the F word, much of the time, but I think she set a record for # of times in two hours!
love, y o d
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I get to go “the great compromise” that we see in the Oscars where one contender will win best picture; one contender wins best director; and another contender might win best screenplay or best for in a film.
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It’s all so subjective, political, biased, and random. If anything, it’s a good water cooler convo. 10 nominees is still absurd to me though…
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I thought I heard that the whole reason they expanded best picture to 10 nominees is specifically because “the Dark Knight“ got snubbed
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I could see that. But, 10?! IMO, Nolan’s better works were before Oppenheimer, but the Oscars played “we-owe-you-one” a la DiCaprio in The Revenant or Scorsese with The Departed…
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Interesting! I personally loved Anora, loved its shift in tone in each act (romance to screwball farce to tragedy) and thought its commentary on the way the rest of us are used by the super rich (that there’s not much difference in the end between cleaner, fixer and sex worker they’ll all disposable when they’ve fulfilled a need) really well done. With the massive caveat that I’ve still not seen The Brutalist (I know I know what am I playing at…) it was certainly my favorite of this years Oscars crop.
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I understood the commentary underneath but couldn’t escape the constant screaming, as if 8-year-olds were cast and still unsure how to deal with their emotions. If that was the point, just raise a family. Why watch it on screen? I know your generation adored Anora, and you have every right. I found it troublingly annoying and not my style. I’m getting old, Alistair! Thank you for sharing 🙂
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