Anora

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.

The first 40 minutes can be quite misleading, likely catching viewers off guard if they enter with the expectation of a romantic narrative.

Once the first act concludes and the second act kicks in, there's a striking shift in both tone and style that I honestly did not see coming.

The comedy is genuinely entertaining, with moments that will have you laughing out loud. Despite serious circumstances, the absurdity of the situations elicits laughter and chuckles.

They have certainly nailed the dark comedy sides of the story.

However, I found the dramatic elements to be less impactful than I had anticipated, leaving me puzzled by the overwhelmingly positive feedback it has garnered from all around.

While Mikey Madison delivered an impressive performance, and fully deserves every praise coming along her way, her character needed more depth to properly flourish. It feels as if the writing intentionally held back on details, leaving the job of contemplation solely to the audience.

I wish that weren't the case.

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.

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.

Overrated and boring. Gratuitous nudity and sex scenes with a ton of fluff and fill dialogue. I'm not exactly sure what people were seeing when they gave it a great review, but there was only one solid takeaway from this movie, and that is that Mikey Madison can act. Caveat to that opinion is that specifics of her character can become quite annoying. You'll have to see it to understand exactly what I'm saying without giving any spoilers away. The movie starts out strong and sets itself up pretty well, only to come crashing down not even half way through. If you're not that curious of a movie buff, then you definitely won't regret passing on this one.