"Anora" and "I'm Still Here"

 ☆☆☆☆½ 

A bit of a catch-up here — so just a couple of capsule reviews of Best Picture nominees as, after what feels like too long, I get back in the habit of writing the blog.

Anora is the movie Pretty Woman could have been, the version of that allegedly "Cinderella"-like fairy tale that, in the Disney version, ended with laughter and tears of joy as formerly poor prostitute Julia Roberts was whisked away by her wealthy Prince Charming. That movie famously started life as a gritty drama called "3,000," and had Hollywood been a bit bolder, there might not be room for Anora.

Thank God Hollywood wasn't bolder 35 years ago.

Anora has, too, been described as "Cinderella," but that seems to desperately misunderstand everything "Cinderella" is about. Anora bears no resemblance to "Cinderella." Even the moment of apparent love depicted in the poster (above) is a sham. The whole movie proceeds from the cynical notion that almost all of life is a sham—for everyone, the wealthy as well as the destitute. What writer-director Sean Baker understands, as he did in his captivating Best Picture nominee The Florida Project, is that the best parts of life happen when we forget the cruelty.

Life is cruel to Annie (Mikey Madsion), who works as a stripper and prostitute at a seedy club. When ultra-wealthy Russian heir Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn) sees her, it might be love, or it might just be a booze-and-drug-fueled vision, one that will give him the freedom he seeks from the bottomless wealth of his parents. Vanya and Annie both want freedom. They'll both do what's necessary to get it—including marriage. But things go disastrously, sometimes hilariously, wrong as Anora turns into a sort of cross between Pretty Woman and Fargo, and better than both of those movies. It's a thrilling, emotionally resonant blend of drama and comedy, and with it Baker proves himself one of the best filmmakers working right now.

*****

 ☆☆☆☆☆ 

A military helicopter roars above the sun-soaked beach of Rio de Janeiro in the opening moments of Walter Salle's I'm Still Here, bringing an oppressive sense of dread to what seems to be a slice-of-life family drama. It's 1970, and Brazil is six years into life under a U.S.-supported dictatorship.

The family in question led by former Congressman Rubens Paiva and his wife Eunice. They have an enviable lifestyle, with a villa on the beach in Rio and loving children. Things take a turn when Rubens (Selton Mello, whose presence dominates even when he's not on screen) is "requested" by a group of ominous men to give a "deposition." He leaves the house with a forced smile, and his wife Eunice (Fernanda Torres) tries to keep the family whole. It's not long before she and her teenaged daughter are also brought in for questioning, and I'm Still Here grows ever more tense.

It should come as no surprise that Rubens never returns. Superficially, I'm Still Here begins to resemble the all-but-forgotten 1982 Costa-Gavras film Missing, in which a wife tries to learn the truth of what happened to her "disappeared" husband. But thanks to the warm and rich performance by Torres—and, briefly, by her mother, Fernanda Montenegro—the film becomes a testament to learning how to live under the hardest of emotional circumstances.

I'm Still Here earns a surprising emotional release in its final 15 minutes, when the film drives home the enormous price Eunice has paid for her stoicism.

For many Americans, I'm Still Here offers a dark, disturbing glimpse into a possible future, as well as an affecting and inspiring reminder that even when faced with the worst that mankind can offer, there is humanity and hope in courage and perseverance. It's a compulsively watchable exercise in masterful filmmaking and storytelling.

Anora — Viewed: Feb 9, 2024 — AMC Universal 16 — 1515

I'm Still Here — Viewed Feb. 12, 2024 — AMC Burbank 8 — 1410