Anora written, directed, produced, edited, written by Sean Baker this is the winner of five Oscars and many other trophies, a revelation, and Sean Baker has established a record, he is the only one to win four Academy Awards – well, there are others, but he has a special achievement – for the same feature, others had to participate in more than one film – now for my plug: you find more than five thousand notes on films from The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made and other sites, plus magnum opera from The Greatest Books of All Time and other lists on my blog and YouTube channel https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html

 

Anora written, directed, produced, edited, written by Sean Baker this is the winner of five Oscars and many other trophies, a revelation, and Sean Baker has established a record, he is the only one to win four Academy Awards – well, there are others, but he has a special achievement – for the same feature, others had to participate in more than one film – now for my plug: you find more than five thousand notes on films from The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made and other sites, plus magnum opera from The Greatest Books of All Time and other lists on my blog and YouTube channel https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html

 

 

9 out of 10

 

This film has won five Oscars: Best Motion Picture of the Year, Best Achievement in Directing, Best Original Screenplay and Best Achievement in Film Editing all for one man, Sean Baker, and Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role for Mikey Madison, a new star, maybe, she has a fabulous chance now

 

Notwithstanding the fact that I enjoyed this original, dynamic, very good movie, I must say that there were some qualms, perhaps I should conclude my assessment here, and then move on to the personal experience that casts doubts on the veracity of the narrative, or at least parts of it, this being a biased, personal view

 

Mikey Madison plays Ani, a young stripper from Brooklyn: I have seen yesterday an episode of Talking Movies on BBC, where the host and probably producer of the show invited a location manager to talk about his métier and then they went to where they filmed Anora, iconic places in Brooklyn, or was it near

We even went – with the crew – inside that shop which is smashed by the son of the Russian oligarch – here we have the first ‘objection’, I mean, you put in a film a Russian or two and you have me not just less interested, but very tempted to just turn off the whole thing – and they explained how it worked to have that

 

They placed inside some plastic screens so that the Russian aka Ivan can destroy them and much more, he is a spoiled brat after all- he goes to this club where Ani works, throws money around, likes her, pays more to get closer, and then they have such chemistry – I don’t know about real feelings – that he wants to marry her

This is where Thomas Mann https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/magic-mountain-by-thomas-mann.html comes to mind, for he has this character I have read about decades ago, when I was a teenager, who pretty much annihilates the concept of love, or at least he gives a different perspective to the definition

 

The Thomas Mann personage is appalled by the frequency with which those around him claim ‘I love you so much, there are no words to describe I’, or friendships that do not fit the definition, we only get to see love, friends in fiction, this character insists, in real life, when you test a friend, he lets you down with ease

As for love, what we see is infatuation, sexual attraction called love, and I am tempted to say that there is something there – you read in psychology books https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/07/positive-psychology-by-kate-hefferson.html about the Honeymoon Effect, or/and The Coolidge Effect basically telling you how feeling is lost

 

There is also the problem of misusing, abusing the word – they keep saying I love this color, shirt, car, film to the point where you have to refer to someone else – Kingsley Amis https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/03/the-kings-english-guide-to-modern-usage.html who criticized the mistakes made

Infamous is one example, it is used in such way, as to elude the difference between famous and infamous…to conclude: very good film, only I did not really believe the Russian ghouls could be that stupid, nefarious? Absolutely, but not that foolish, only trump can be such an idiot.

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – I am on Goodreads as Realini Ionescu, at least for the moment, if I keep on expressing my views on Orange Woland aka TACO, it may be a short-lived presence

Also, maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the benefits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

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