Anora

Mediocre. As simple as that. How can a movie, not necessarily stylized, but constraint by budgetary issues, full of clichés and lacking in originality both in the screenplay storyline and its characters, with average acting by all cast, become such an industry darling? There's no redeeming qualities that would lead ANORA to get such high scores by both moviegoers and, especially, critics.

The main character's journey brings her and us back to where the story began. She learns nothing and we are left wondering what could make it a special show. It is not by any standards, except for the current need to reward what is not considered mainstream.

I wanted to see this film for a long time due to high rating on Metacritic, also won Palm D'or, so was very excited to watch it and finally when it won the Oscar, I bought the film on Amazon prime and watched it To say the least, I was a utterly disappointed. Yes movie had some sequences which were good, but nowhere is the movie Oscar worthy. It should not even be nominated in the best films category. I don't know what has happened to Hollywood that the level of movies that win Oscars has degraded so much over the years. Winning the Oscar for best film was a life goal and this movie winning it really undermines the value of an Oscar.

The script, the narrative is okay, nothing new, some surprises here and there, and that's about it.

The performances I would say are good. The lead actress has done a great job. Maybe she deserved an Oscar nomination, but not win the other side characters, except for one or two are interesting. Rest are not making any sense or any depth of your thinking about them a lot.

Cinematography is good. There is a lot of frames are well placed and lot of imagery. I would say photography is good, but again when the narrative is not strong enough to hold everything falls apart.

I've not seen the other movies which have been nominated. Maybe they are even worse than this, but of course, this does not live up to expectations and Hollywood needs to up their game. Otherwise, I need to stop watching any new movies.

Way too much of this movie's two hours is taken up with watching a fairly repulsive young couple -- an overprivileged Russian billionaire's sex-and-drug-crazed son and the brassy "sex worker" of the title -- getting it on in various ways and settings. They're both incredibly shallow, stupid, and greedy, though at least you get the sense that she hasn't enjoyed the easy life that he's had. Despite her occupation, she retains a certain believable naïveté.

That's the boring part of the movie. It goes on far too long.

The dumbest part involves the boy's three improbably clownish Russian handlers, who, in what's obviously meant to be a funny scene, behave like actors in a slapstick comedy. It doesn't work at all.

If you don't bail out at that point (as I was tempted to do), you'll find the final portion somewhat more satisfying.

I don't understand at all how this got 5 Oscar's this year. I'm watching for the first time as it has now hit streaming and I was left very confused. It was slow in the first half, picked up a little in the second and then the last half went back to being slow. A lot of scenes were super drawn out, there was no need for the film to be as long as it was. We got absolutely no back story on Anora at all which is what I was waiting for. Don't get me wrong, Mikey Madison isn't a bad actress but I was waiting for more. For the most part she just cursed, showed her body and screamed a lot. I didn't really see a performance worth best actress, even though her performance wasn't terrible. The script also wasn't that good, there were a lot of pieces that were overly repetitive and the characters were pretty much one dimensional. I guess the audience is left to use our imagination but I wish we were given more for the runtime.

Anora was extremely disappointing, with a third-class and cheap feel throughout. It lacked quality in every aspect, making it a complete waste of time!

Watching Anora was an incredibly disappointing experience. The entire production felt cheap and lacked any sense of quality or effort. From start to finish, it seemed like the creators were more focused on cutting corners than delivering something meaningful or engaging. The storyline was predictable and uninspired, failing to hold my attention or evoke any emotional response. The characters lacked depth, making it impossible to connect with them or care about their journey. To make matters worse, the visuals and overall aesthetic felt outdated and amateurish, adding to the sense of a third-rate production. It's clear that very little thought went into creating a cohesive or impactful experience for the audience. I wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone-it's truly a waste of time and energy. If you're looking for something entertaining or thought-provoking, this is definitely not it!