All the screenshots in this post were taken directly from the movie by me.
Although I had pretty much neglected cinema in general for a couple of weeks now (especially when it came to relatively recent films), I couldn't ignore the hundreds of praises that Añora had received since its release, a coming-of-age story that told us the story of a stripper who ends up falling in love with a young millionaire who promised to figure out his life.
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The cherry on the cake, obviously, was seeing that at the 97th edition of the Oscars, this film directed by Sean Baker managed to take home 3 of the most important awards of the entire ceremony: best director, best actress... and best film.
Hard to ignore, right? And after spending a couple of minutes on the film it's pretty obvious why, since even though I had a couple of general ideas about the route the work would take, the final result was something that still surprised me in the best of ways.
Starring a brilliant Mikey Madison (who many will remember from a small role in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood or her recent appearance in the latest sequel of the Scream franchise), Añora stands as a breath of fresh air in an ocean of Hallmark movies and generic sequels, characterized by a beautiful and nostalgic visual style, with musical pieces that complement its deeper themes very well, and most importantly: a devastating story that perfectly represents the fleeting moment between a hedonistic man and a girl desperate to escape her own reality.
In this way, what begins as a sort of deconstruction of a Cinderella story (something I have read in dozens of reviews), Añora slowly becomes a nightmare that takes advantage of the bitterest aspects of its own premise to frustrate us and make us smile in almost equal amounts, to the point that it could remind us of the overloaded and desperate style of a film like Uncut Gems, with the peculiarity that it ends up being more delicate.
It's hard to find anything bad to say about Anora, a film that can hypnotize and bombard us with sex and excess in its first half, only to then bring us down (like its protagonist) to devastating reality.
It's a story that flows, is funny, moving, and very deserving of all the praise it has received. It reminds us that coming-of-age stories don't necessarily have to be set in adolescence, and paints a much more interesting (and human) view of that portion of society with which we are not in contact.
Score taken from my Letterboxd account.
Twitter/Instagram/Letterbox: Alxxssss
I find it very praiseworthy that you have no sentiments about the film. It must be a spot-on film. This makes me want to check it out and enjoy it as well.
It's amazing, give it a try
For some reason it won so many awards at the Oscars, even more important awards such as Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress. Although the plot doesn't catch my attention, because of these awards and the amount of praise I've read in other reviews, I'll give it a chance.
It's great, although I get your point, I actually feel the same thing before watching it