r/Oscars • u/Irksome706 • 10d ago
Review 'Anora' is garbage and Oscars should be ashamed
Before I launch into a diatribe defending this title, I want to first acknowledge that everything I’m about to say is in reference to this movie being a 5 time oscars winner- putting it in the category of films like ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ and ‘The Silence of the Lambs’. I’m sure if i watched this movie without that pretext (well-I probably wouldn’t have finished it) but likely wouldn’t have thought about it much else after seeing it. However, that is the context I watch it under and thus feel I need to rant and rave about it. Also, I may be late on the hate train, but I wasn’t going to pay to see this movie so I just watched it on hulu.
In order to explain how awful this film is I’m going to explain why I’m baffled at each Oscar category it won and why. I would warn that spoilers are ahead for this movie, but honestly- if you haven’t seen this movie yet you aren’t missing anything so read this if you’re so inclined for a vent session.
Best Original Screenplay First off, this movie felt like a spec script for an episode of ‘Barry’ but was rejected because it didn’t know how to be funny or sincere - two things Barry succeeds very well in with this overused genre. What makes Barry’s humor so funny is everytime they use slapstick within the violent brutality of a scene- they immediately follow it up with a funny reaction, quippy one-liner, and/or off color joke to downplay the violence. When this movie tries slapstick, the reaction is just met with a “fuck you” that completely shuts down any attempts to make the brutality light hearted. On the reverse end, anytime someone has the opportunity to say something real about they feel, they literally run away or just shout “fuck you”. Completely shutting off any chance of vulnerability from any character and any actual character growth.
Speaking of character, the most amazing thing about this movie is the main character has absolutely no agency over her actions whatsoever. This is weird since the movie literally carries her name in the title. It's practically written as a second person account because she is a puppet in her own story. There's no setup of who she is and what she wants in life, everything is just told by other people pushing her through the plot. The club owner wants her to entertain the Russian kid- so she does, the Russian kid wants to hire her for week- so she does, the Russian wants to go to Vegas- so she does, the Russian kid doesn’t want to go back to Russia and get married to an American instead- so she does, the goons looking for the Russian kid “force” her to comply- so she does, the parents want them to annul their wedding- so she does. The only decision she kind of made, I guess, was agreeing to meet up with the Russian kid outside of the club and take his money, but then she sits in the backseat both figuratively and literally for the rest of the movie. There’s a small glimmer of this changing towards the end of the movie when she finally discovers where the Russian kid is…. But does she use this as an opportunity to try to take charge of the situation, evade the goons, and confront her husband for abandoning her? Nope! She just tells the goons that he’s at the club and they take it from there. When she meekly tries to stand up to her husband’s mom, does she call the mom’s bluff? Of course not! She relents immediately. She is a passive character in her own story. (which probably doesn’t help that this story was clearly written from a male point of view).
Oh and can we talk about how razor thinly written the plot is? It’s clear that this movie is trying really, really hard to “subvert” the Pretty Woman/Cinderella expectations it attempts to sell you in the first act but has so many beat-you-over-head foreshadowing moments that it completely telegraphs what will happen for the rest of the movie. It also thinks this “big twist”, that you can see coming from a mile away, is so good that it doesn’t need to subvert anything else in the rest of the story. Oh if you haven’t surmised the twist is wait for it the parents aren’t keen on their rich son marrying a sex worker and want it annulled immediately thus depriving Anora of her perfect rags to riches narrative. gasp couldn’t see that coming. This twist is so earth shattering that the movie doesn’t know where to go once the grand reveal happens at the top of the second act. As soon as he’s confronted about his actions, the Russian kid immediately abandons his new wife. The goons interrogate Anora as to where he could’ve gone, she doesn’t know -so they try and intimidate his Russian friends, they don’t know- so they try and intimidate random strangers (and like a bunch of them) - who also don’t know. The story comes to a complete dead stop until Anora randomly gets a text of his whereabouts and she just tells them where he is and they take him to his parents. Everyone just accepts their fate (with as much “fuck yous” as they can muster) and the movie ends.
…And speaking of “fuck you”, let’s also talk about the dialog….or rather the complete absence of it. If you remove the word “Fuck” from the script, I literally think there would be maybe 10% of dialog left, and mostly just word articles before and after “Fuck You”. It is singularly the only word anyone knows and uses exclusively throughout every fucking scene in this entire movie. I’m actually kind of surprised the movie isn’t just called “Fuck in Three Acts”.
Best Editing This is also another conundrum, and I think Oscar voters confused volume of edits with quality of edits. Granted there are a lot of edits in this movie, but none of them are super noteworthy.
Speaking of volume though, this movie does the cheap editing trick in the first act to evade actual storytelling and character development by basically just having a 45 minute montage of sex and smiles. After the big “twist”, its just a lot of monotonous cuts for the rest of the movie. The thing is, the second act suffers from lack of montage that would greatly improve the story telling. They spend 20 SOLID minutes of the goons showing random folks a photo of the Russian kid that we dont need to see played out in real time. Everywhere they go (in the same general vicinity they don’t leave) they ask like 20 people the same question and get the same response. It’s not something worth watching, and would be greatly improved if the goons actually went somewhere other than the pier for their search.
And that’s the thing… every scene lingers so much longer than it needs to after the opening montage marathon. When they’re interrogating Anora and their friends, they linger on each scene 5 minutes longer than needed to the point that you get bored and uncomfortable as a viewer. It’s so awkward because it feels like you have the "plot" information within the dirst 30 seconds of any new scene, and with the non-existent dialog, the story has nowhere to go in any scene but keeps everyone trapped there.and everyone just ends up staring awkwardly at each other. Not sure if it was because they have the pad the movie’s run time, but it's so unnecessary and each scene would be greatly improved in the hands of a better edit.
Best Director Honestly, the three best directors this year weren’t even nominated (Denis Villeneuve, Jon M Chu, Robert Eggers). However, that doesn’t excuse this win here. Northing in this movie shows great direction. Its a cliche genre, with a cliche twist, and simplistic storyline. I feel like any director could make this movie, and nothing about this one feels like a cinematic achievement.
The funny thing is that if you go on tiktok, you can easily find a myriad of Anora tiktoks showing that other directors did kind of have a hand in this movie. There’s a plethora of shot-for-shot comparisons being made about several scenes in this movie to the point that it kind of seems like this award should be shared by the committee of directors that were straight up copied to make this film.
Meanwhile you have directors building and crafting amazing worlds, universes, and unique stories out of their head that went unnoticed and unrecognized by the academy that makes this win so insulting.
Best Picture While this category is fairly open ended- I would say that this award should recognize movies that moved you the most. Did this movie move you angsty and teary like 'Wicked'? Did it rile you up like 'Dune'? Did it inspire like 'I’m Still Here'? Did it stir you like 'A Complete Unknown'? Did it engage you like 'Conclave'? Did it shame you like 'The Substance'? Did it make you cringe like 'Emilia Perez'? The answer is probably no and here’s why:
Lets start with the cast. While Mikey Madison is clearly a talented actress, the same cannot be said about her costars. I’m sure many in this cast came with the director, but outside of Mikey it felt like everyone else was making their movie debut and wasn’t quite sure what all they needed to be doing to deliver professional work. Their line deliveries were awkward and i felt like everyone had the millennial pause before their lines are said which made it all very choppy (also hey editor, that would have been a great thing to trim).
It also kind of felt like bad improv with confusing marks, actions, reactions and delivery- which honestly I can forgive and move on from. However, there was one choice that was so egregious that this actor should banned from acting ever again. That was the choice by the Russian kid to hold a game controller like he’s never seen one in his life and proceeded to mash the two joysticks as if that is the only way to play any game. If this was 15-20 years ago, sure ok he doesn’t know what he’s doing. But in 2024, when there’s literally unlimited video of gamers streaming gameplay- learn how to fucking use a controller my guy. It takes all of 15 minutes for a 6 year old to figure out how to hold it and play a game. Stop being an asshole and hold the fucking control like a person not an alien. It made me want to go through the tv and punch him in the face for being such a lazy piece of shit actor. Inexcusable.
Also inexcusable was the Harvey Weinstein-esk tactics Neon reportedly employed to get Oscar votes. It spent 18 million on its Oscar campaign, which was 3 times the cost of the movie. I feel like this aggressive, heavy handed Harvey tactic to bribe Oscars voters for their votes to get awards for eyeballs isn’t necessary anymore. Now that streaming is the best way to get indie films to be seen instead of rentals or DVD sales the profit after the fact isn't going to be limp sim not a bunch smaller ones. You don't need to maximize your efforts with a win. A nomination will suffice. Studios should be penalized for this rather than rewarded. Stop trying to pedal shitty movies into award shows wins. It cheapens the whole experience for everyone.
Best Actress I saved this one for last because I think this will be the most controversial. Is Mikey Madison a talented actress? yes. Was her accent in this movie good? Sure. Was it impressive she knows Russian or learned some Russian for this movie? Sure. Did her costars' lackluster acting chops help her shine? Sure. Did she play her role convincingly? Sure. Did she deserve to win for this movie? No.
I would have put her 3rd or 4th in the category. I think both Demi Moore and Cynthia Erivo bared their hearts and souls much better in their respective roles and deserved the prize more. I also think with Mikey Madison’s win, it made The Substance that much more ironic. It also shows that Demi Moore was shunted twice given how much better she is in her 1996 sex worker story- Striptease.
So in summary, Anora sucks but here are some better options using the same tropes….
Sex worker trying to make it out - Striptease, Flashdance, hustlers, the girlfriend experience, closer Mob stuff gone wrong: whole nine yards, rock n’ roller, layer cake, confidence, kiss kiss bang bang Movies that subvert the Cinderella/rags to riches trope: Woman of the Hour, Ever After, Into the Woods, Cinderella 3, a Marriage Story, Revolutionary Road, Gone Girl, Jennifer’s body, The Substance
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u/TheBrainlessRobot 10d ago
Just say you don’t understand subtext, character motivation, or good filmmaking and move on. It saves all of us time.
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u/Wild_Way_7967 10d ago
This is just a low effort troll with no original thought. Just mock them and move on.
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u/BewareOfGrom 10d ago
People keep acting like this movie is written as an ode to sex work and I didnt take it like that.
Annie has very little agency. Just like Yura has little agency. Just like all the thugs have very little agency.
This is a movie about class just like all of Baker's other films. He makes movies about sex WORKERS.
Also the fact that you took a full paragraph to critique the way one of the characters held a video game controller is very funny to me. Seeing someone hold a game controller wrong should inspire you to want to commit violence.
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u/ShaunTrek 9d ago
To be fair, I was also bitching about the controller when watching the movie. There's no way he could have actually been playing the game on screen. But also, he was blitzed out of his mind on an insane bender, so I got over it real quick.
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u/Mediocre-Gas-1847 9d ago
Yeah that’s fair enough tho but OP was calling him an asshole and stuff 😂
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u/FistsOfMcCluskey 10d ago
I ain’t reading all that. I’m happy for you tho… or I’m sorry that happened
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u/MiserableCourt1322 10d ago
It was fine but it doesn't even crack my top 20 for 2024. I was very surprised Yura got a nom and so much praise for essentially just reacting in the background. And don't get me wrong he was good at that, but you could have plugged a whole lot of actors into that role and they'd do just as well.
Mikey was great, and I think the nom was earned but not necessarily a win?
Not having an intimacy coordinator seemed like an odd choice.
Personally -- and I know I'm going to lose a lot of ppl here -- I do side eye directors who are fixated on a "type" of female character (similar to Hitchcock and icy blondes). Too often it turns out that those directors are creeps that are using their position to control actresses and fulfill a fetish (exactly like Hitchcock and his icy blondes). With Sean Baker ihis interest in sex workers and the fact that sex workers have been the focus of his last 4 films makes me cautious to fully embrace his work.
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u/BeautifulLeather6671 10d ago edited 10d ago
Yeah I think in a stronger year Anora wouldn’t have cleaned up like it did. But Madison was certainly deserving of the win.
The intimacy coordinator conversation got so bastardized, it’s kind of annoying. Less than 2% of films have a credited intimacy coordinator, it wasn’t like it was some crazy controversy. Madison just answered a question that she didn’t feel like she needed one and everyone ran with it.
And yeah kinda lame to insinuate someone of being a creep just because of the films they make. David Lynch was by all accounts a conoletely wholesome dude and made some of the most fucked up shit ever. Theres tons of examples of that too.
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u/MiserableCourt1322 10d ago edited 10d ago
Yeah I'm clearly not saying every director, so I'm not sure why Lynch is coming up. Maybe I don't remember his films enough but in my memory he doesn't have a specific type he just likes the "femme fatale" trope. I'm speaking about Directors who repeatedly fixate on very specific type of actress/female character and then it comes out that they were creeps. I'm referring to Hitchcock, his attraction to blondes and his abuse of Tippi or Woody Allen's trope of young women (or girls) dating much older men and trying to groom Muriel Hemingway is.
Of course #notallmen, but definitely enough men that for me it's a 🚩
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u/BeautifulLeather6671 10d ago edited 9d ago
True, the reason I brought up Lynch is because he had a specific type of character that was tortured or violated all the time. No need to harp on that point though, I hear what you’re saying.
But even though Baker’s last four films have all been in the world of sex work, no main character is the same. Tangerine had two black trans street hookers for main characters, Red Rocket had Simon Rex, and Florida Project had children.
Plus, his wife also is his business partner and is heavily involved in every decision(not that that would absolve anyone from being a creep necessarily) which makes me think there isn’t anything suspect happening especially with the way all the actors have raved about the guy.
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u/burger333 10d ago
Shame ya didn’t like it lol. I will say, even if I don’t agree with or understand your reasoning, at least you genuinely tried to explain it, I can’t stand short contrarian takes, but this is a lengthy post. Respect that.
I think the Harvey accusations are a little unfair, only because many films do this (not just Weinstein films, no need to purposely use a serial harasser as your example). Also, to me, this is a big win for indie filmmaking, I think it’s great a film with a smaller budget won best picture. It’s a growing trend in the Academy, and contrary to being ashamed, I think they should be proud.
One small specific note I will also make is your take on the movies editing is unfair. It’s brilliant editing imo. There are jokes that are basically 100% an editing choice. Editing humor is a lot more difficult than it seems. Now, you prbly didn’t find the movie funny, so that aspect isn’t gonna work for you, but the point is that you don’t even seem to get that this is part of the reasoning behind it winning the Oscar, so figured I’d try to help explain.
Also, this might make it worse for you, but Ivan’s button mashing was (per the actor) meant to be a joke, mainly an inside joke with his brother who is a big gamer, he knew it’d annoy him. Personally, I didn’t notice it the first time, and the second time I actually thought it works for the character, he seems like he’s horrible at video games and just mashes. Either way, it really isn’t a big deal and I was surprised so many ppl noticed that.
Anyway, that’s my “short” response lol. Agree to disagree.
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u/Irksome706 10d ago
Appreciate the insights....especially on the controller because that soured me the most and it's somewhat of a relief to know that was the case.
I will also readily admit my bias was expecting The Silence of the Lamb tier movie and feeling like that's not what it delivered.
Thanks for reading the rationale.
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u/ShaunTrek 10d ago
Did this movie move you angsty and teary like 'Wicked'? Did it rile you up like 'Dune'? Did it inspire like 'I’m Still Here'? Did it stir you like 'A Complete Unknown'? Did it engage you like 'Conclave'? Did it shame you like 'The Substance'? Did it make you cringe like 'Emilia Perez'? The answer is probably no and here’s why:
My answer to several of these is 'no,' but probably not for the reasons you think.
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u/putalittlepooponit 10d ago
I was gonna say, Wicked absolutely should not have won lmao. Anora moved me more than wicked did
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u/ShaunTrek 10d ago
Stirred by A Complete Unknown? Maybe if I bought into any of the emotions or understood any of the characters motivations other than "I make good music."
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u/BeautifulLeather6671 9d ago
Any lame point you’re trying to make is immediately ruined by the last paragraph with the movies you mentioned that are “better”.
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u/veeDebs69 10d ago
You need professional help. It doesn't even matter what your essay says.
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u/darth_vader39 10d ago
Professional help because he has an opinion?
Some of you need to touch some grass...
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u/veeDebs69 10d ago edited 10d ago
No. Writing a 20 page essay and posting it on Reddit. Doing that for any subject is insane. And especially for a pretty innocuous movie. Especially with a click bait title. Anyone calling Anora "garbage" is deeply unwell or just desperate for attention. Criticize the production or awards or whatever, but the movie is clearly not garbage. It's technically decent at worst.
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u/darth_vader39 10d ago
But if he wrote all nice words about Anora he wouldn't be called insane. See, I liked Anora, but just because I liked it it doesn't mean he need to.
And yes, he can call Anora "garbage" if he wants to because in the end of the day literally every film has this kind of takes.
It's technically decent at worst.
Technically a lot of films are decent at worst yet they are called garbage.
You wanna see my hot take?
Princess Bride is hot garbage. Nothing in that film is good. Yet, I know many would disagree with me.
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u/BeautifulLeather6671 10d ago
Well it’s a little bit clickbaity considering it won 5 Oscars. People don’t have to like it but it’s clearly not garbage lol
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u/darth_vader39 10d ago
Comments will tear you appart but It takes a lot of courage to write all of this especially on the sub where majority of people adore this film.
I don't agree with your views but I do agree with one thing. There is a lot world 'fuck' and it is really annoying.
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u/JeanCerise 10d ago
Ok koo koo. No way I’m reading all that. Idk, I liked it. Isn’t that great how we can have different opinions!?
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u/botoxedbunnyboiler 9d ago
Maybe the longest post on Reddit. Anyone have the cliff notes? No way I’m reading all that.
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u/Due_String583 10d ago
Jesus christ just get a journal and spare us from posts like this.