48 Nervous Hours. Ironic drama winner of the Cannes 2024 Film Festival

( Anora, Anora, 2024, U.S.A. )

Facts are not only stubborn, but sometimes funny.\nI’m watching Sean Baker’s sensational Cannes 2024 movie, and time after time he reminds me of our Bitter! reminds me of Kryzhovnikov. Why would that be?\nAnd then I read the backstory of filming – ha, wow!\nIt turns out that in the early 2000’s Baker was engaged in editing wedding videos, including weddings of Russian immigrants in New York. And that invaluable experience, according to Sean, also came in handy when he created Anora .\n However, hello ©

Unlike Bitter! which I could not watch to the end, I was more successful with Anora. And when this story (not a small one, by the way – 2 hours and 20 minutes) was over, and all the mad tossing in it was formed into a single picture, I even liked it. Including its, surprisingly, deep moral, which I had no time to search for in the course of watching it.\nTrue, it is unlikely that its author’s message will reach a specific target – 20-year-old girls with a breeze in their heads. Not really still thinking about the coming life, so what do they care about morality in a movie?\nNevertheless, Anora’s finale is so poignant and expressive that it may bring adult thoughts to those to whom it is addressed.

Another interesting fact: the main roles in the movie, shot by an American in America, are played by Russian and Armenian actors. All except the main role of Anora, or Ani, the nude dancing star from the men’s club, played by Mikey Madison; you probably remember her as Manson’s henchwoman from Once Upon a Time in…. Tarantino’s Hollywood.\nHowever, joined the foreign company Mikey brilliantly. And how relaxed she feels in the hard-lyrical scenes, it’s a pleasure to watch. Not otherwise, movies about plumbers and housewives in the face of Madison lost a lot, but serious movies, as we see, acquired.

Some color pallor and archaic image in Anora is explained not by a sudden strike of your TV, but by the fact that Baker shot the film on a 35mm film camera. That’s why his night street scenes also suffer from excessive darkness. But on the whole, it has its own zest.\nAnd the general plans of film Brooklyn here reminds directly of Brother 2 . With the same uncomfortable atmosphere of dankness, crowds, shouting and constant nervousness. Except for those scenes where Anora invades the glamorous life – read party – of Vanya, the son of a Russian oil oligarch. First Ani’s elite client, and then … her husband.

The only thing is that the beginning of the story is annoyingly long. And I’m afraid that for many of you it will become an insurmountable obstacle on the way to the pulp of the movie. For 45 minutes we follow the birth, development and approach to the climax of Eni and Vanya’s love. And this, I’ll tell you, is not for the faint-hearted. As each of them has the mind of a teaspoon, but shouting and arrogance – kamaz with a trailer.\nIn short, there will be a lot of wow, yow and gy-gy-gy, but not much meaningful speech.

They had met in a banal way – at Anora’s work. Or rather, she was working. And Vanya, who had flown to New York, was on vacation in that club. But the enthusiasm of a girl in love with her profession won him over. So the next, much closer communication they arranged at Vanya’s place in his father’s mansion. Where the young man lived alone today, because his parents at that time were intensively trading oil in their homeland.\nOr as alone as he could be. The parties there rattled every day, Vanya often went clubbing, so he didn’t suffer from loneliness. And after the een number of Enya’s visits he transferred her to the shift method – he bought Anora for a whole week.\nAnd indeed, why not help the hard-working Cinderella, if her father’s oil was selling so well?

And so, in the course of round-the-clock, exhausting relaxation, Vanya and Ani were brought to Las Vegas. Where Vanya proposes to Ani. And she says yes. So purely on the big and bright love, but there were mutual pluses. Vanya, who didn’t want to go into Daddy’s oil business – shit, you have to work there! – got a green card together with his American wife. And Eni received the whole social package in addition to Vanya. My husband is the son of an oligarch.\nPretty good too, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo!\nTrouble came from where… Yeah, we waited, but we thought it would pass.\nIt didn’t. Except from fear.

Alas, the newlyweds had no sooner enjoyed their honeymoon (it’s hard to say how it differed from the previous month of frenzy) than Vanya’s parents finally found out about it. And, furious, they went to the States. Then, to destroy this shameful marriage for their family.\nAnd while they flew across the ocean, to convey to Vanya the will of the ancestors in the mansion appeared daddy’s friends, criminal types from the local …\nAnd so it began! And it’s not morning in the collective farm, as you’ve probably already guessed.

***

In general, the curious movie has now overtaken in the race for the Palme d’Or at Cannes even Coppola himself with his Megalopolis. And with so many Russian actors in key roles. Although, of course, for all its merits Anora remains a picture for the fan of screen discomfort: shouty, fussy and nervous. And it can be called a comedy only conditionally – its humor is as noisy and twitchy as everything else.

And yet, watching her characters run around is not boring, and they often make you smile. In addition, you will have a different tour of Brooklyn: both in elite party places/mansions, and in ordinary streets.\nThe verdict: it can be recommended to everyone who wants to see this improved 2.0-version of Bitter Anora. If only you can sit through the first, annoying 45 minutes, after which all the fun and interesting stuff starts.

Movie trailer (age rating 18+):

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