Anora (2024)

It turned out that it was one of Farshad’s favourite films of 2024. Unfortunately i didn’t agree. He and many other people think Anora is troubled, but ultimately sweet. On the other hand, i felt that she was very money-focused and rude to everyone. There was no backstory given to why she was rude to her sister or why she had a rivalry with Diamond at the strip club.

When the marriage broke down, i found it difficult to feel sorry for her because it seemed clear that she was there for the money, Ivan was there for the green card, and any concept of feelings were just her lying to herself about it. I felt this was demonstrated well when she storms out of the club showing off that she’s living in a mansion now.

I also felt that her acting was slightly wooden for most of it, especially in the fight scenes which unfortunately made up most of the plot.

Igor was the best character. I wish he’d had more time to develop, as it felt that there was a lot more to be said. Perhaps this was intentional, or just that he is a very good actor. If the film focused more on him and how he has to deal with all these ultra rich brats, i would be happy.

The first forty-five minutes or so were very slow, and didn’t give me any sense of depth in the characters except that they were rich, rude, and entitled. They spent a lot of time doing drugs and having sex and not much else.