Anora

The movie is truly an enticing advertisement for why all girls should stop studying and work a stripper/escort. Acting is mediocre at best and the story is well .... for the lack of a better word mind-numbing as it reflects the super consumption fueled glam lifestyle every fashion magazine and Kardashian reality shows attempt to sell. How is this borderline pornographic crap-fest for 14 to 18 year old audiences was deemed worthy of an Oscar was beyond comprehension. I do have to admit the staging, scenery and costumes were quite suitable to tell the story but the dialogues (straight out of high school locker room was cringeworthy. Please help me comprehend how low the Oscar bar has been dropped in recent years or who the Russian mob paid off to make sure this mediocre flick received such high praise.

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.

The movie is a fun watch, it is a regular comedy movie and the plot feels similar to a Hangover movie of sorts. I went in expecting some sort of deep underlying symbolism and complex dialogue as is typical of Oscar winning movies. However sadly there isn't a single hard hitting scene in the movie, it relies entirely on Mikey Madison's appearance and acting skills to carry the plot forward. I particularly found it annoying how the characters excessively used the f word, easily 80-90% of the f bombs were absolutely unnecessary and began to sting my ears. The movie keeps you hoping for an intense plot twist, but it never comes. There is very minimal character development in the first half which i feel did not provide sufficient context for the way events unfold in the movie's second half. It starts to get pretty dull by the end. I feel the high critic ratings skewed my expectations from the movie, if i saw this as a casual Sunday viewing I would've absolutely loved it. But as an Oscar winner, this movie is extremely disappointing.

I watched this yesterday, just before the Oscar awards were announced.

70% is sexual activity/nudity/porn like behavior 20% is fights/throwing and breaking things/yelling 10% is soap/crying

Not sure at all why this movie was granted so many awards. In so many categories. Especially for the best movie and the best actress. To me it was trashy, uninteresting and even boring at times. The only interesting part was when the parents came to US and took care of the business. The woman in the leading role is average looking at best with no acting skills, no aura, no charisma.

If you like trashy movies then this one will be for you. I would give 4 out of 10 at best.

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.