As we soak up the hype around this year's crop of Oscar nominees this weekend, one question hangs in the air.
Could a $6 million comedy drama about a lap dancer facing the wrath of Russian oligarchs really be the slight favourite for Best Picture?
Apparently so - although no-one can state with any conviction that 'Anora' or any of its big rivals will emerge triumphant at Sunday night's Academy Awards.
On paper, Sean Baker's movie is an unlikely contender for Hollywood's most coveted prize, given that it's a low budget, indie comedy drama with a relatively unknown cast about a sex worker.
'Anora,' though, won this year's Producers Guild and Directors Guild awards as well as last year's Palme d'Or at Cannes and in a tight Oscar race, that has been enough to catapult it into the front rank of contenders alongside 'Conclave' and 'The Brutalist'.
In recent years, Academy voters have shown a willingness to stray from rewarding conventional Oscar bait, giving the Best Picture award to 'Moonlight,' 'Parasite' and 'Everything, Everywhere, All At Once'.
But they have also in other years reverted to more traditional Best Picture fare like 'Spotlight,' 'Green Book' and 'Oppenheimer'.
So where would 'Anora' sit if it were to join the roster of Best Picture winners?
'Anora' is certainly far from conventional.
It focuses on Mikey Madison's Brooklyn lapdancer of Russian origin, Anora Mikheeva who appears to land on her feet after performing for Mark Eydelshteyn's Vanya Zakharov, the hard partying young son of an oligarch.
Smitten by Anora, Vanya hires her for $15,000 to be his girlfriend for a week, hanging about the family home in Brighton Beach and having sex.
Their arrangement, however, escalates into an impulsive marriage proposal during a boozy visit to Las Vegas and a tacky wedding.
When word reaches Vanya's parents back home, they're embarrassed and enraged that their son has married a sex worker and they contact Karren Karagulian's Armenian handler Toros to deploy two goons, Vache Tovmasyan's Garnik and Yura Borisov's Igor to strongarm the couple into getting the marriage annulled.
Getting both to comply, though, proves difficult with Vanya running away from his home and Anora putting up a real fight.
However with Vanya's furious parents, Darya Ekamasova's Galina and Aleksey Serebryakov's Nikolai due to arrive in the US by private jet within 24 hours, can Toros and his henchmen persuade Anora to do their bidding and track Vanya down?
Like all of Baker's work, 'Anora' is a really well made film.
Just like Rich Peppiatt's BAFTA winning 'Kneecap,' it's a tongue in cheek romp helmed by a director who really knows how to elevate what could be a flimsy plot.
It has a rough edged charm and if you can get through the first 20 minutes of watching Vanya's sleazy behaviour, it actually turns out to be a lot of fun.
Is 'Anora' a great or good film, though?
Probably the latter, although there is no doubt Baker has a wonderful eye for a memorable image.
Along with his cinematographer Drew Daniels, he positions the camera really intelligently throughout the movie - sometimes in the most unexpected places.
Not only does the film look fabulous but it boasts a strong BAFTA winning lead performance by Mikey Madison with great supporting turns from her fellow Academy Award nominee Borisov, Karagulian, Eydelshteyn, Tovmasyan, Ekamasova and Serebryakov.
If 'Anora' were to lift the statuette for Best Picture on Sunday night, you wouldn't quibble with that result.
There are worse films in contention for Best Picture and there have certainly been less accomplished films that have taken home the prize.
But there have also been better films in recent years that have gone home from the Oscars empty handed.
We await with bated breath to see how Baker's entertaining film will fare.
('Anora' was released in UK and Irish cinemas on November 1, 2024 and digitally on January 28, 2025)
If 'Anora' feels like the underdog that might just pull off a Best Picture victory and 'Conclave' a traditional old school choice, Brady Corbet's sprawling three hours plus epic 'The Brutalist' lies somewhere in between.
The tale of a Hungarian Holocaust survivor and talented architect who appears to land on his feet in Philadelphia, it's a big movie packed full of big ideas, big visuals and big performances.
It is imaginatively shot by Corbet and his Oscar nominated cinematographer Lol Crawley on a remarkably modest budget of just under $10 million.
But could it be a worthy Best Picture winner?
Corbet's film follows Adrien Brody's flawed but brilliant Bauhaus trained Jewish architect Laszlo Toth from the moment he sees New York from the first time by boat.
Initially it's a lonely existence with his wife and niece still battling bureaucracy back home in the wake of the Holocaust and unable to join him.
He is fortunate to be able to rely on the generosity of a cousin, Alessandro Nivola's Attilla who offers him work, room and board in his Philadelphia furniture store which he runs with his young wife, Emma Laird's Audrey who has converted him to Catholicism.
When Joe Alwyn's Harry Lee Van Buren arrives one day in the store looking for someone to redesign his father's library as a birthday surprise, Attila recommends Laszlo who takes on the job with a crew for $2,000.
However when Guy Pearce's industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren arrives home early at the mansion near Doylestown to find Isaach de Bankole's immigrant Gordon clearing up after the renovation, he flies into a rage and orders Laszlo, Attila and the crew to leave without being paid.
Three years later after a falling out with Attila and Audrey, Laszlo is working in the docks and living in a shelter with Gordon and his young son when Harrison turns up and apologetically pays him for his work, informing him that the architectural community have lauded the renovated library.
Shocked that such a talent is being wasted shovelling coal in Philadelphia's docks, Harrison Van Buren becomes Laszlo's benefactor, engaging him as the chief architect on a lucrative project to build a civic centre, church, gymnasium, theatre and library near Doylestown dedicated to the memory of his mother.
He arranges for Laszlo's wheelchair confined wife, Felicity Jones' journalist Erszebet and his traumatised, mute niece, Raffey Cassidy's Zsofia - both of whom survived Dachau - to come to America.
But how much has Laszlo changed in the intervening years and how much creative freedom will he really be able to wield as he sets about constructing his controversial design for the Van Buren Institute?
Writer-director Corbet's movie, shot on VistaVision by Crawley, is an epic tale about the immigrant experience at a time when America seems to be turning its back on being a haven for the world's "poor, huddled masses yearning to be free".
It serves as a reminder of the contribution that desperate immigrants have made to the United States despite the hardships they endured after arriving there - an upside down shot of the Statue of Liberty as Laszlo goes up on deck to see America for the first time seems a perfect metaphor.
Corbet's initially gritty depiction of the immigrant experience recalls Milos Forman's 'Ragtime' and Sergio Leone's 'Once Upon A Time In America' - both epic tales of immigrants doing what they can to overcome the obstacles they encounter in the land of opportunity.
However it soon develops into a tale about Jewish identity and assimilation into an Anglo Saxon Protestant culture, class and privilege, artistic freedom versus wealth and power with the film taking on the sweep of Paul Thomas Anderson's 'There Will Be Blood'.
From Brody to Jones, Pearce to Nivola, Alwyn to Cassidy, de Bankole to Laird, right down to Jonathan Hyde as a builder engaged to work with Laszlo, Peter Polycarpou as a Jewish attorney engaged by Van Buren and Michael Epp as a pompous and less talented rival architect, the performances are top class.
But if there is a criticism, it is that Corbet cannot quite sustain the film's lengthy running time of three hours and 22 minutes.
At times you cannot help but feel that despite its many virtues, 'The Brutalist' is a bit too self-important and self-indulgent for its own good.
Nevertheless, it's good to see a modestly budgeted movie taking on big themes with real ambition and, for the most part, delivering.
Is it a worthy Best Picture winner among this year's crop of nominees?
Like 'Anora,' you might not object.
But would it deserve to be considered among the greatest Best Picture winners if it does triumph on Sunday?
I'm not sure but it doesn't feel that far off.
Time and a bit more perspective will ultimately determine how great Corbet's film really is if you are prepared to devote again over three hours to a repeat viewing.
('The Brutalist' was released in UK and Irish cinemas on January 24, 2025)
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