#i really liked anora

[trailofpebbles]

Some thoughts on Anora and sex work

I've seen a lot of ppl on twitter complaining about Anora being a romanticization of sex work. I'm not a sex worker and I don't mean to invalidate any perception this film might arise. But my interpretation has been so different I'd like to share it.

From the very beginning Ani is presented as a hard worker, if anything. The way she scans the club for clients with cold calculating eyes and how her demeanor changes whenever she aproches a man and starts talking all sweet and banal in order to sell herself. She seems to know the ropes and be good at what she does.

And this might be an impopular opinion and maybe motivated by the fact that I live in a poor country, but she seems to be doing ok? She's surely not rich and her job is shown as informal and precarious, but she's able to make a living out of it. This fact is not romanticization to me. Ani's marginalized from the system by the fact she couldn't get a better, less violent and more stable job. But my feel is that from a bunch of precarious, informal jobs, she chose one that could get her more money.

Of course, Ani is a young white girl living in (the outskirts of?) NY, and her somewhat privileged experience may be far from the average sexual worker. But to me, Anora's aim is to dig into one specific aspect of this kind of work, and it's its relation to love.

I'm aware sexual workers know how to set boundaries between personal and professional life. And I've read people complaining about how unbelievable it was Ani falling for Vanya's lies. But personally I didn't find it that unnatural. Maybe it's because as well as a sexual worker, Ani's a young girl. And no matter how feminist one tries to be, I think the fantasy of Prince Charming is ingrained in us from a very early age and in a very deep place. Ani wants to do her honeymoon at Disney with a princess theme. To that, you can add that Vanya seems to be a way out of a job that can give her enough to get by, but not much more, and who knows for how long.

I don't think it gets to be clear whether Ani got to feel something real for Vanya or not. It's clear he didn't. But while it's pretty obvious she married this boy she met one week ago for money, the fact that she's trying to learn Russian and wants to meet his family seems like an attempt to actually fit in. I was also moved by the fact that she added her to his group of friends. Ani, with her working hours, didn't seem to have much of a life outside the strip club.

But what I liked the most about the film is how the last scene with the wedding ring continues this ambiguity. Ani's affair with Vanya earned her a total amount of $25,000 dollars. While it's a lot of money, you can't call it a life changing sum. However, assuming she's telling Toros the truth about its quality, the ring is worth about $160,000. That number can have a bigger impact on her life.

The ring seemed to me a great symbol for this problem. It's both an expensive piece of jewelry and an emblem of love. It wasn't only her chance at an aristocratic life that got stolen away, it was a feeling of being loved and belonging.

Sexual market needs love and sex to be separated in order to sell the latter. Ani is an experienced worker and success in this. But what happens when this premise coexists with the desire for love patriarchy also needs us to feel? To me, this was the particular vulnerability of sex work the film helped me dig into.

[hangmanbradshaw]

Favorite movies of 2024? Go

[aqvilegias]

long term parking, the sopranos (1999 - 2007), created by david chase / anora (2024), dir. by sean baker

[gingerteaonthetardis]

Care to share your thoughts on Anora? 💙💙

oh, absoluuuutely, like, even though i don't have any very complex thoughts about it, i'm just gonna rattle off some things i liked!

okay, so i really enjoyed it as a Film. like, the cinematography first and foremost was really effective to me. the dreamy, hazy motion of the camera giving a sense of unreality to the whirlwind 'romance' portion of the story, only to come sharply down to earth as it all crashes around her? love. and then it just follows everybody doggedly and somewhat miserably around new york

mikey madison!!!!! she killed every second onscreen

i loved the realism of a lot of the dialogue (ani's 'customer service voice' and her shop talk was Relatable in the extreme). and the crosstalk and overlapping voices in some of the scenes was just 🙏 yes. this is how people talk to one another. loved that sean baker trusted the viewers to keep up with this even as characters switched languages, sometimes at a rapid pace.

particularly loved toros's line about not being on instagram because he's an adult lmaooooo

the fight choreo—especially with igor and ani almost wrestling—was so so delicious, just like clumsy and awkward and very grounded. the biting!! also how intensely he's trying not to hurt her so it just devolves into a bear hug akdhsks

the 'love at first punch' of it all

this is a dynamic of all time and i'm not kidding

on that topic, this was truly a movie for lovers of henchmen and goons ❤ just a bunch of ineffectual men fighting for their lives

i was really compelled by ani's desire for her relationship—no matter how shitty—to be real. she holds on way past the point of reason because she simply Needs It To Be Real. arguably, the one real thing in her life

because the thing is, she's a woman under patriarchy who spends a lot of her life having to view herself through the mirror of male desire, so the way the film uses that!! and then it's the last guy in the world you'd ever expect who ends up reflecting back something... well, accurate? for once?? to both her and the audience??? that is so. like, i realllllly liked that

particularly in the last scene. it was so good

no, i mean i REALLY loved it. i'm not even sure if i can talk about it in a way that makes sense

also, this

sorry i believe in love!! as if it's my fault!!!!

[crows-of-buckets]

Man. I feel so bad for Alistair in my canon worldstate sometimes. Poor guy fell in love with my Surana, then had to break up with her because she decided to put the crown on his head (she had her reasons. As much as she loved Alistair, she was not going to put Anora on the throne after she back stabbed her. While she knew it would signal the end of their relationship, she was willing to put it aside for the greater good.) So not only does he break up with the woman he loves, any romance going forward is going to be political. Kings rarely get their happily ever after, after all. Almost a decade later he finds out that his now-ex moved on to the bog witch he hates. The two of them are now raising what is technically his son. Poor guy really got the short end of the stick that save huh. Gotta make a playthrough where he's happy next time dear god

[vonlipvig]

still thinking about the tinsel in anora's hair. i love cinema.

[crosswordgf]

i think sean baker's sensibility is more about making well observed films about people that seem real rather than exploring a character's actual state of mind or exploring a story from someone's perspective. i don't know if this is true for all his films cause it's been so long since i saw the florida project and tangerine but it definitely struck me now when watching red rocket that we always just watch from the outside. it's always like you're literally in a room with these people and i guess there is a realism to that but it's also somewhat clinical and creates a distance because it leads you to identify more with the camera than the characters. and i haven't seen anora yet but i'm wondering if this is maybe why some people call that movie exploitative/shallow/voyueristic etc. i wish i could explain what it is about his filmmaking that makes me feel like this though, maybe it was just a weird one off with red rocket cause i really struggled with the lack of score. or maybe it's cause there's sort of a documentary vibe.

[riosnecktattoo]

What were ur thoughts on the Oscars the other night and the winners? Do you think anyone was snubbed?

I thought it was an odd year for the Oscars honestly.

Demi 100% deserved to win Best Actress and it's insane to me that she didn't because I don't think Mikey did anything near Demi's level of work but I guess it was lucky for such a film like The Substance to even garner that acknowledgement given it's horror.

To be clear I think Mikey is very talented but Anora was a thinly realised role whose inner life was vague and whose characterisation flip-flopped scene to scene depending on what the plot required, not the character. Which is also to say I don't think Anora even deserved to be nominated for Best Picture or Screenplay yet alone win.

My personal pick for Best Actor would have been Coleman Domingo. I thought he was sensational in Sing Sing and I adored the film (now THAT deserved a nomination for Best Picture!)

Even though I haven't seen The Brutalist I still feel confident I'd prefer what Coleman did over Adrien lol

I was very happy for Kieran even though I thought A Real Pain as a movie was largely just fine with flourishes of very engaging moments.

I would have liked to see Conclave and The Substance take more home overall.

I'm also glad EmiIia Perez didn't win much because it was one of the worst films I've EVER seen.

So yeah, odd year which often made me feel like everyone was taking the piss 😅

[allthebestcowgirls]

anora winning best original screenplay

[immobiliter]

✿ smack me with any of the muses combo you're feeling most 8)

send “ ✿ ” for 2 headcanons for our muses' relationship / @mercysought

JAMIE & ANORA

to link in with our recent thread, taking anora away into the woods for a horse ride/race becomes a habit of jamie's throughout their marriage and rule of ferelden, particularly when he notices that she is stressed or simply needs time away from the palace to think. it worked when he first tried it during their rebellion, and so after a particularly stressful audience with her council/her people or when she comes to him to vent ( or even when their children are being miniature pains in the asses ) jamie will suggest a horse ride to help clear her head with some physical exercise. of course, jamie will also encourage physical exertion in other ways, but there is something about being once again immersed in nature, instead of surrounded by palace walls, and reconnecting with a passion from their childhoods, that makes this a particularly favoured pastime for him and something that tends to work every time, in his experience.

as a consort who has no direct control over the throne, jamie is forced to find his own passion projects and interests to channel his energy into. while there is an initial obligation on his part to ensure that the avvari tribes who helped with anora's rebellion are rewarded for their support, avvari-fereldan relations do become a focus of his during their reign pre-veilguard. many avvari warriors return to their tribes scattered across ferelden, some remain in the city of denerim ( project exile his two uncles from denerim already ), but jamie tries to foster a better understanding between these two groups of people. he suggests a tournament to be held in denerim every year, open to warriors from all parts of ferelden society, high and low, where both fereldan and avvari combat strategies make up the various challenges. he also works with arls across ferelden to better both trade and overall relations between them and the avvari tribes that often live on their borders. progress is slow, but jamie is nothing if not stubborn.

VAL & ASHAREN

val was not present in ferelden in the aftermath of the divine conclave or during the growth of the inquisition, but the moment she hears all about it from leliana and learns that a dalish elf once again helped save the world, she really longs to make contact. however, by the time she returns to ferelden, the inquistion has been disbanded and asharen has returned to antiva — which is a tricky place for val to visit with zevran in tow for obvious reasons. their paths are seemingly not destined to cross until the re-emergence of the blight, and while those are tragic circumstances for them to finally meet all these years later, val's excitement and awe has not dimmed at all in that time

val understands tragedy and heartbreak better than most, as well as what life is like for a dalish elf forced to enter into human society and lose their sense of connection to their own people in the process. val would never pry, but she is empathetic enough to know that the inquistion certainly Cost her something, and hopes that her own open nature and willingness to talk about events that have happened in her own life ( necessary to explain the complicated political situation between crown and wardens in ferelden, i feel ) might encourage her to open up as someone she sees as a kindred spirit.

[wildwren]

at this point i must’ve read at least 300 distinct internet comment responses to the final scene of anora and have yet to read a single interpretation that aligns with mine. does that mean i get a gold star or does that mean i get shot

[uwuspaceboy]

my predictions for oscars best picture nominees

conclave

anora

dune part 2

a complete unknown

wicked

the substance

[thewardenisonthecase]

Alistair 'forget maric, this is for duncan' beheading loghain without even a second thought theirin is so hot

[mourn-and-watch]

rotating the thought of the chantry explosion backfiring on everyone who was affiliated with anders like kinloch hold or fereldan grey wardens. no way the chantry or its most initiative individuals wouldn't put the blame on anyone who was even slightly associated with the cause of the most defiant insult that had ever been inflicted on it. oh they would never leave one of the most lenient circles and the neutral™ organisation that accepts mages in their ranks alone after that

[crows-of-buckets]

I need to draw my rook bc I actually do have some ideas for them I just. Have NOT been in a creating mood idk I'm so tired... Aoughgggh

[vonlipvig]

so anora is back to being the frontrunner after being the frontrunner and then not being the frontrunner.

i have to say i don't get the hype but sure why not at this point.