Man, me and the Festival De Cannes voters do not have the same sensibilities at all. Well, with that dead obvious hint about my opinion of Anora, I know am just going to be up front about what I think. Because I want to dive into my viewing experience of this movie, and am basically going to spoil the whole thing. If you want to avoid spoilers, here's what I think: I tentatively recommend the movie. Just like Conclave, if you do watch the movie, stay for the whole thing. Not kidding, don't leave the theater until the credits start rolling. Trust me on this.
Now I'm gonna spoil the whole movie. Seriously. Anyone who reads past this point can't get mad at me because I warned you.
This movie starts with 30 to 40 minutes of sex. Really boring, no genitals-showing sex set to weirdly folky music? The opening of this movie made it feel like a Hallmark, just-a-girl on her own before meeting the guy-of-her-dreams but it was following a stripper. I was highly confused. Wasn't this a modern Cinderella movie? Either the song fit or the visuals did, but not both together.
Oh I guess I should quick digress and explain the prerelease information I had. This movie came out in other theaters before ours I heard, and we specifically got it because Poor Things did well in our demographic and corporate thought the same thing would happen with this one. It's darkly humorous that Heretic is outperforming it currently, but whatever. I read the description on our website because I was curious. It was something about a stripper marrying a Russian oligarch who runs away and she needs to find him. This is where I picked up the "modern Cinderella movie" line since it was how the description opened.
Anyway, the main character, Ani (It's a whole thing in the movie how she hates being called Anora. I'll circle back to this.) meets Vanya while working, and she gets paid by him as an escort for about a month. They pursue a whirlwind romance and get married in Las Vegas. A big thing for Ani is she makes Vanya buy her a 4 karat-diamond wedding ring. But one day, some guys show up at the door demanding to see their wedding certificate.
At this point, I'm pretty anxious. I was not jiving with the sexy business at all. Maybe it was just my current mood (I got struck with inspiration to start working on a TTRPG involving body horror, so my thoughts on anything flesh-related are definitely in darker places currently.), but the opening of this movie was reminding me of Terrifier 3. Except with sex instead of gore. It wasn't realistic enough to visceral or disturbing, and it was over the top enough to be silly or hedonistically enjoyable. And the pacing really drags. When Ani is being paid to be Vanya's girlfriend it's sort of cute I guess. My issue is a) they are both kinda assholes, and b) the tone is confusing. Like the text of the movie is throwing a ton of red flags at me about this relationship and who these people are, but the movie is playing out like the romance is a sweet thing and that these two are so in love. I honestly thought that maybe I was being too curmudgeonly and out of touch. "This is the modern Cinderella story!" I thought, "I must just be behind the times."
...Am I laying the foreshadowing on too thick? Sorry, I'll try to thin it out.
Anyway, these two guys show up at Vanya's door and demand to see his marriage certificate. These are people who work for Vanya's parents who do not approve of his marriage. A fluster-cuck happens, and Vanya takes off into the street. There's an incredibly harrowing scene where Ani get's tied up with a phone cord by the goons reluctantly because she keeps trying to run off. I also wasn't sure if the scene was supposed to be funny or not. Like the goons are very likable characters, and it's silly that these burly guys are getting their asses kicked by a stripper with glittery hair. But it's still a kidnapping happening! The tone of the movie still felt inconsistent at this point, but at least stuff was happening.
Anyway, the goons intermediate boss shows up. They make a deal with Ani to work together to find Vanya, and then the next hour of the movie is this motley crew looking for a Russian idiot twink. And the movie is back to being repetitive and boring. Also, there's a ton of hostile character interactions. Which is understandable to a certain degree, Ani did basically get assaulted kidnapped by these guys and the lead goon took the wedding ring she really liked. But after the 400th time she yelled at them about being married to Vanya I lost all sympathy. Plus, Igor was trying to apologize for the whole tying her up thing, and wanted genuinely to make her as comfortable with a shitty situation as possible.
Igor was one of the goons, by the way. He was my favorite character in the movie, mostly because he seems chill and compassionate, but also weirdly uncomfortable with the entire situation. Like he wants to help out Ani because he feels bad that she's in this horrid situation, but also really wants to go home and put this whole experience behind him. It's a real shame that Ani treats him like shit for the entire movie.
I did find out the movie is supposed to be a bit of a black comedy as well. What tipped me off was the scene where the car they are all driving around in gets towed. The goons get in a screaming match with the tow truck guy and end up pulling the car off the tow hook by driving it backwards while the tow guy yells "It's only my second week on the job!" It was pretty funny. It did make some scenes I thought were slightly horrifying at first really funny in hindsight. Ani kicks the non-Igor goon in the face, breaking his nose and giving him a concussion, and the crew refuses to let him go see a doctor. He's not even that helpful for the investigation, let the guy get medical attention!
Anyway, the crew eventually finds Vanya at the nightclub where he met Ani. They drag his drunk ass out of their, his parents arrive via private plane and threaten Ani into going through with the annulment of her marriage, and she is destroyed when it turns out that Vanya doesn't fight it and is perfectly willing to give her up to appease his parents. I really like this. It was a bit of a swerve, but justified my bad feelings about their relationship from the beginning. Turns out I'm not out of touch, I love a sad ending! It was only slightly ruined by the impression I was getting that they were going to set up Ani with Igor. I actually wrote in my notes that if those two hooked up, I would reject the movie. Well...
So after the marriage is annulled and Vanya goes back to Russia, Ani is told she can spend one more night in Vanya's house, but she needs to clear out the next day. Igor stays with her and they have a conversation about names. Turns out Ani doesn't like being called Anora because it means Honor. Or something, it was really hard to understand Igor in this scene. Because he looked that up, Ani accuses Igor of being a rapist which REALLY FUCKING ANNOYED ME. GIRL! He's like the only person in this movie who's trying to be nice to you! So the next day Ani gets all her stuff packed up and Igor drives her to wherever she's staying. When they arrive, Igor give Ani back her wedding ring. He had stolen it back from one of the bosses. Then Ani jumps him. Now, if you are me, this is where you sign, throw your glasses to the side, and completely write off the movie. I would have walked out, but I decided against it because there was like 10 seconds left in the movie. And it's a good thing I didn't, because literally the last ten seconds save the entire movie.
Here's what happens. As Ani is grinding on Igor, he goes in and kisses her. Ani reacts extremely violently to this, she pulls aways and starts hitting Igor before breaking down crying in his arms. And then the credits start rolling. I was stunned by this ending. Everything made so much more sense now. All those red flags I was getting from Ani's relationship with Vanya, I was supposed to be getting those, but from Ani as well as Vanya. Why is Ani so insistent that she and Vanya are in love despite the fact that Vanya ran off without her? Because she needs this to be real. This is probably the nicest thing that has ever happened to her and she definitely wanted this to be real. The wedding ring is a symbol for that. Why is she so mean to Igor only jump him at the end? Because that what she thinks she's supposed to do! All men to her are either evil predators, or nice guys she feels are obligated sex. And when Igor shows her genuine affection, she has no idea how to handle it and breaks down! It's a very powerful ten seconds.
Quick fire thoughts on non-story elements. The acting was really good, the cinematography was interesting but I don't know if that means it was good, and I didn't like the music. Purely for personal taste reasons, but I don't like heavy techno music or overly earnest love ballads, and don't think they mix well together. Movie's also probably 20 minutes too long, but it does help drive the twist at the end home so what do I know?
So that's Anora. It's not perfect, even with the twist at the end. (Why is the sex in the first fifth so boring? If the point was to show how shitty her situation is as a stripper the sex should be incredibly grody.) But this might be the first time I've experienced the ending of the movie saving the entire fucking thing. So I recommend it, I guess. It's a bit of a hard sit through, although not in the way something like The Substance is. You'd definitely be better served going in if you know it's a comedy.
No comments:
Post a Comment