And "Anora"

Moderate spoilers ahead.

At the time of writing, "Anora" is far and away the best American film of 2024.  Like most of Sean Baker's work, it's about a sex worker - this one a New York based stripper and escort named Anora Mikheeva (Mikey Madison) who goes by "Ani."  She meets a young Russian client named Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn) who doesn't speak much English.  Ani speaks a little Russian, enough to charm Vanya and keep his attention.  Soon they're flying off to Vegas together, and getting married.  However, Vanya is the son of a powerful Russian oligarch (Aleksei Serebryakov) and a formidable mother (Darya Ekamasova) who are not happy about this turn of events. 

"Anora" is a film that kept me on my toes.  Initially I was wary of the modern-day Cinderella story it seemed to be telling, with its long sequences of watching Vanya engage in hedonistic behavior, including multiple encounters with Ani.  He pays her for lap dances and strip teases - some far more explicit than mainstream films usually feature - escalating to sex and a whole week of exclusivity.  I wasn't buying the love story, but I liked the performances - Madison gives Ani some real hardscrabble grit and shrewdness, while maintaining her vulnerability.  Vanya is deceptively naive and unruffled by any situation.  Eventually I let myself be convinced that they could be happy together.  And that's when the movie took a swerve.

The second part of "Anora" turns into a raucous comedy, where we're introduced to three more characters: an Armenian priest named Toros (Karren Karagulian), his brother Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan) and, and a younger Russian man named Igor (Yura Burisov).  Vanya's father has paid these three to look after Vanya while he's in America, and they're frantic when they realize their charge has somehow gotten married on their watch.  Initially they come across as threatening, but Ani proves to be much more than they bargained for, and it's impossible not to feel bad for all of them.  These are not the Eastern European thugs of your usual action movie, but blue collar guys trying to do their jobs, who do not want to get violent, and aren't used to dealing with this amount of aggravation.  The situation escalates into an absurd odyssey across New York, where we get to know everybody a little better - including Ani and Vanya in some very different contexts.  

Some of the reviews I've read find this middle section too drawn out, but I think it's vital, especially for Ani's character.  Suddenly, she's not the perfect fantasy girl from the unlikely romance, but a stubborn, resourceful scrapper who refuses to be intimidated by three men who each dwarf her in size, and who will out-curse, out-threaten, and out-scream anyone who tries to talk down to her.  The intensity of the film ratchets up to dizzying heights, and the whole tone shifts.  Suddenly Ani's not the underdog we're rooting to find a happy ending, but a loose cannon in a precarious situation that just keeps getting weirder and wilder.  And it's all vital setup for the third act, where you find out who Ani really is.  Sean Baker really hits his stride here as well, nailing well-observed character moments, fun visual punchlines, and some gutting social commentary when you least expect it.  Extra kudos for nailing the feel of pornographic fantasy while avoiding the venality.

There's a lot going on in "Anora" that I'm still unpacking.  Ani's relationship with her Russian heritage is a big piece.  Vanya's status as a privileged millennial 1%er is another.  The characters' relationships with technology, specifically their phones as facilitators of courtship, is a third.  I don't think I've seen a film so in tune with the transactional, depersonalized nature of intimacy among many young adults.  Then you have the portrayal of sex work, the immigrant narrative, the New York setting, the subversion of the "Cinderella" story, and so many more layers under all the vibrancy and excitement.  I'm glad that Mikey Madison is getting so much attention for her work, along with Yura Burisov as Igor - who quietly ended up giving one of my favorite performances of the year by just being present and observing the madness going on around him.

And all kudos to Sean Baker for capturing the act of seeing in a way that really hit home.  He hasn't missed yet after four films, and is really overdue for all the acclaim he's finally receiving.  

  

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My Top Ten Episodes of "Star Trek: Lower Decks"

I decided not to write a season review for the final season of "Star Trek: Lower Decks," because despite a good amount of serialization, the show has always worked best as an episodic series for me.  Also, I lost track of the seasons at some point and binged the whole ending in one go.   So I'm just going to skip ahead to the Top Ten episode list, where I'll be discussing my favorites episode by episode, and the last season will definitely get some representation.

Episodes are unranked and listed by airdate.  Despite the overrepresentation of the first season, I really enjoyed the show consistently the whole way through.  Lots of "Trek" references ahead, and it gets pretty nerdy.  

"Moist Vessel" - You can see the influence of "Rick and Morty" the most clearly in the first season.  Mike McMahon is an alumnus, and definitely brought some of the sensibilities of that show with him to "Lower Decks."  Here, we get concepts that you could never do in a live action "Star Trek" show, like the terraforming agent wreaking havoc on the Cerritos and the ascension ("Space koala!").  And yet, the best gags are character based, with Mariner's priceless reactions to being promoted. 

"Terminal Provocations" - This is the first Badgey episode, and the one where he works the best.  Honestly, the joke wore pretty thin after they brought them back a few times, but Badgey's introduction is absolutely priceless.  Having a holographic assistant character based on Microsoft Office's Clippy is funny enough, but then they're also a talking Starfleet icon badge?  And they're evil?  And Rutherford has to resort to some pretty extreme violence to put him down?  It's perfect.  

"Crisis Point" - The entire episode is a spoof on the "Star Trek" movie franchise, complete with modified credits sequences, ridiculously drawn out beauty shots of the Cerritos, J.J. Abrams lens flares all over the bridge, and Mariner playing a campy Khan figure named Vindicta.  Of course, the meat of the story is Mariner confronting some of her own issues through the holodeck therapy, and Boimler finally learning the truth about Mariner being the Captain's kid - which predictably freaks him out.  

"No Small Parts" - The first season had some significant competition, but the appearance of a special guest star convinced me it had to be on this list.  I think the big sacrifice play would have had a lot more impact if it stuck, but this was still a chance to see the Cerritos handling a major crisis with some real stakes.  Bonus points for the introduction of exocomp Peanut Hamper and turning the dopey Pakleds from "Star Trek: The Next Generation" into some pretty formidable villains.  

"I, Excretus" - This is one of my favorite episodes of the entire series because Boimler demonstrates his ability to be a total badass for the first time.  He spends most of the episode grinding a holodeck training simulation of a Borg mission until he's turned himself into the coolest action hero ever.  Meanwhile, it's nice to see Freeman and Mariner getting along, and other familiar "Trek" plots and scenarios getting goosed in the other simulations - including a wild new take on "The Naked Time."

"Grounded" - I picked the premiere of season three instead of the finale of season two because I love the way that it shows how much Mariner has progressed as a character over the last two seasons.  The big cliffhanger isn't resolved because of her efforts, but boy does she put in the effort.  This involves hijacking a theme park ride, complete with a hologram of Zephram Cochrane, then hijacking the Cerritos, and finally being brought down a peg when she learns Starfleet did the right thing anyway.  

"Reflections" - This is easily the best Rutherford episode, where we finally learn what's going on with his sinister implant and discover what a different person he was in his past.  I haven't written enough about Tendi, but this is such a good Tendi episode too - giving her relationship with Rutherford some emphasis.  This is also the episode where Mariner and Boimler are essentially stuck manning a recruitment booth at a job fair the whole time, and Mariner gets the opportunity to process her life choices. 

"The Inner Fight" - Nerd that I am, I absolutely loved that the last two episodes of season four paid so much tribute to the original "Lower Decks" episode of "The Next Generation" that was a big inspiration for this show.  They brought Robert Duncan McNeill back again, this time to reprise his one-episode role as the bad influence Nick Locarno!  I also found it very sweet that Mariner had a significant connection to the departed Ensign Sito in her younger days - I always loved that character.

"Starbase 80?!" - At last, the crew of the Cerritos visits the notorious backwater Starbase 80, which offers some interesting surprises.   Most of the episode functions as a horror thriller, with a giant bat and something that's turning people into zombies.  However, the "don't judge a book by its cover" message is delivered just right, and the new characters are all delightful.  I was so glad that the "Lower Decks" series finale provided an extra coda to this episode that ties up a lot of loose ends.  

"Fissure Quest" - I suppose that it was inevitable that "Star Trek" would end up exploring the multiverse, and this is the best possible result.  The episode is spent with the crew of an entirely new ship, populated by alternate versions of familiar characters - Boimler's clone, a Garak and Bashir who got married, a T'Pol, a Curzon Dax, and many, many Harry Kims.  It's pure fanservice, and yet it works so well because nobody's playing the material for laughs.  I hope to see this group of characters again one day.

Honorable Mentions:  "Those Old Scientists" (Technically a "Brave New Worlds" episode, or it would totally be on the list), "First First Contact," "Hear All, Trust Nothing," "Parth Ferengi's Heart Place," "A Mathematically Perfect Redemption," "Caves," and "The New Next Generation."

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Oscar Aftermath 2025

The Oscar ceremony was a nice break from reality this year.  There were a few shots at activism related to ongoing conflicts overseas, but not much related to the current Trump administration.  Kamala Harris was rumored to be making an appearance, but those were only rumors.  I had a pretty good bead on all of the winners well in advance, with the exception of Mikey Madison surprising in Best Actress, so there wasn't much suspense.  That left the usual pageantry and production snafus to enjoy, which I did.

 

Conan O'Brien hosted this year, which was a great choice.  He's very much of the old school late night host mold, but still current enough and silly enough to put a giant sandworm playing the piano on stage, pull up old headshots of nominees, and devote a whole opening musical number to promising to not waste time.  His monologue was only so-so, but a real stroke of genius was inviting some of the local first responders onstage to be lauded for their efforts in the recent disaster efforts - and then having them deliver a few below-the-belt jokes to capitalize on the goodwill.  Conan's audience interactions were great, and I will be very disappointed if the disappointed John Lithgow bit doesn't become a widespread meme immediately. 

Format changes this year included not having any of the Best Song nominees actually performed.  It was a sorry crop of nominees anyway, thanks to the inexplicable support for "Emilia Perez."  Instead, we had the show open with Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande doing an Oz medley, and later on there was a Quincy Jones tribute and a whole James Bond extravaganza that feels a few years too late. Did Amazon sponsor that one?  The presenters were decent - Ben Stiller got to do a great physical bit -  and I liked having actors pay tribute to the craftspeople, but I still missed having the clips.  There were good speeches (Zoe Saldana), weird speeches (Kieran Culkin), bad speeches (Camille), really bad speeches (Animated Short turning into a power struggle), and Adrien Brody beating the Greer Garson record for longest acceptance speech in Oscar history.  Of course the show ran over, but at least they didn't hit the four hour mark.  

It was a bad year for the Oscars' production design.  The virtual backdrops were often very busy looking, and showrunners were having trouble getting what was on the screens to look right on the broadcast.  The orchestra was elevated above the stage, and for some reason partially blocking the central screen at times.  This resulted in the worst In Memoriam segment I have seen in a long time, which not only had the musicians blocking the screen, but also headshots of the deceased superimposed over their tribute clips, resulting in visual chaos.  And they left out Tony Todd.   And whoever decided to have a choir up there singing Mozart's "Requiem" as the accompaniment needs to be held accountable.  At least Morgan Freeman  was recruited at the last minute to pay respects to Gene Hackman. 

I didn't watch the reportedly disastrous live broadcast on Hulu, which apparently didn't account for  the extended running time of the ceremony and kicked a lot of people off the feed right before the announcement of  Best Actress.  I was hoping that this would be a viable alternative to my having to wrangle the local ABC broadcast signal every year - always a dicey proposition when you live in an apartment.  Alas, no such luck.   As long as we're  saving movie theaters, maybe we should also look into maintaining the television broadcast networks for situations like this.    

In the end "Anora" won big, and Sean Baker especially (tying Walt Disney's trophy count), but nearly all the Best Picture contenders walked away with something.  There were more Bob Dylan jokes than Trump jokes, and it's always great to see Goldie Hawn, Mick Jagger, and Bowen Yang.  June Squibb did a solid comedic bit with ScarJo.  The Quincy Jones number was worth it to see Whoopi, Oprah, and Queen Latifah looking fabulous.  Not everyone who won should have, but there were no glaring misses either.  And I hope Conan considers coming back regularly in the future.    

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Rank 'Em: Your 2025 Best Picture Nominees

There's been a lot of Oscar drama this year.  I like this batch of nominees fine, and appreciate that the international influence seems to be here to stay, though there are a few choices that I'm not on board with at all.  Below, find this year's nominees ranked from best of the best, to least of the best.  I'll keep the spoilers to a minimum.  

1. Anora - At the time of writing, this is my favorite film of 2024, an unpredictable, genre-defying romantic-comedy from Sean Baker.  It tells a very old kind of story, but with modern characters and sensibilities that offer all kinds of interesting social nuances to consider.  There are many other films this year addressing current issues and social ills, but no other film feels as timely and immediate.  "Anora" is also a delightful watch, zig-zagging from class comedy to Cinderella-sendup to genuine heartbreaker.  I know who I'm rooting for on Oscar night.   

2. The Substance - I'm probably putting this too high up in the rankings, but I adore Coralie Fargeats's crazy showbiz gorefest.  "The Substance" is a grindhouse horror movie through and through, but somehow it's stormed into the awards race and refuses to get out of the spotlight.  Demi Moore is the frontrunner for Best Actress and deserves it, giving us a portrait of self-loathing that is at the root of the film's squelchy body horror nightmares.  And I take the nomination as further proof that Hollywood is still in love with stories about itself, no matter how monstrous and gruesome.

3. Nickel Boys - I've never seen filmmaking in first person singular achieved as well as it is here.  RaMell Ross beautifully executes what could easily have been a gimmick, and you can't imagine the film being any other way.  What the camera is doing doesn't seem to work for everyone, but I couldn't keep my eyes off the screen.  The experience is so immersive, so intimate, and so haunting, it's impossible to come away unmoved.  The moments that stayed with me were often the incidental ones, emphasizing precious human connections in the midst of misery and adversity.  

4. The Brutalist - The more I consider "The Brutalist," the more I appreciate it.  This is a film of soaring ambitions, astonishing scope, and unusually weighty, meaningful themes.  Not all of it works, especially the ending, but the parts that do work offer the kind of cinema that we really don't see enough of.  I've sat through a lot of mediocre passion projects from very big name directors over the last few years, and seeing Brady Corbet pull off something this massive on a tiny budget is inspiring.  I'm also rooting for Adrian Brody for Best Actor, who hasn't done work this good in ages. 

5. Dune 2 - Denis Villeneuve did everything right here, repositioning Paul Atreides as an anti-hero and laying out his rise to power in more sinister terms.  I continue to love the production design, the grand scale spectacle, and the sprawling cast.  The sandworm sequence is one of the high points of the year.  However, it was harder to engage with the story in this installment, and so much was condensed that it lost some of the human element.  The supporting actors are the MVPs here, especially Zendaya, Javier Bardem, and Austin Butler - who simply didn't get enough screen time.

6. I'm Still Here - Maybe it's because the nomination was so unexpected, but I wanted more from "I'm Still Here."  Anchored by a fine performance from Fernanda Torres, it's a solid memoir about a family living through a dictatorship and dealing with tyranny firsthand.  However, it's a much smaller story than I anticipated, very personal and limited in scope.  There are other international films I would have nominated for Best Picture instead, like "The Seed of the Sacred Fig" or "The Girl With the Needle."  "I'm Still Here" strikes me as very good at what it's doing, but not exceptional.

7. A Complete Unknown - I keep forgetting that this is a nominee, because the movie feels so slight.  I'm not a Dylan fan, or very familiar at all with this corner of American music, so the material didn't hold much appeal.  However, watching a collection of talented actors play '60s folk music legends for a few hours was charming.  I appreciate that Bob Dylan wasn't lionized all out of proportion, and Monica Barbaro was a great surprise.  I can't quite wrap my head around what Timothée Chalamet is doing, but I appreciate that he's not giving us a typical Bob Dylan impression.

8. Wicked - They got the casting right, which goes a long way toward balancing out some of the glaring production flaws here.  I'm with the detractors of the film's cinematography and the unforgivable kneecapping of the "Defying Gravity."  However, "Wicked" is undeniably a good time at the movies, and a fabulous showcase for Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande if nothing else.  As with the "Dune" movies, it's difficult to judge based on an incomplete narrative, but as incomplete narratives go, the first half of "Wicked" is pretty swell.  I don't expect "Wicked: For Good" will be better.   

9. Conclave - I do not get it.  I simply can't take the film seriously.  The sequence of events is too ludicrous, the politicking is too didactic, and the final twist at the end is several levels of ridiculous.  Despite some good performances and plenty of Vatican eye candy, "Conclave" is such a heavy-handed message movie that it feels more like a parody of Oscar bait than an earnestly made film.  It's certainly entertaining, and has priceless camp value - Tedesco vaping is iconic - but I can't rank it any higher than this.  The fact that it's a frontrunner in the race strikes me as understandable but unfortunate.

10. Emilia Perez - It's not a bad movie.  It's ambitious, vibrant, weird, and not afraid to go big and melodramatic.  However, it's also remarkably tone deaf.  I'm not surprised that the film got made in 2025, but I am surprised that it got so much support in festival circles before anybody realized that it is a terrible trans narrative, terrible representation for its Mexican characters, and totally useless as a musical.  Zoe Saldana's performance is fantastic, and really should be in a much better film than this one.  I hope this will be a springboard for her to better things.

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