Anora (2024 film)

Category: Dramedy

Directed by: Sean Baker

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Wikipedia describes this movie as a romantic comedy-drama. Ha! It's hardly romantic. I've actually gone with Dramedy as the category because this movie is essentially a drama revolving around a marriage and tinged with some wonderfully subtle comedy.

I remember when this came out, there was lots of consternation by the online blowhards about a movie centering around sex work, as well as the controversy of a Russian (Yura Borisov) being nominated for an Academy award (Best Supporting Actor) because of all the naughty things Vladimir Putin is doing in Ukraine. Wow. Not racist at all! And this plays in to my tendency/preference to wait until hysteria about a movie has died down, to allow me to watch said movie with a fresh mind.

So to that end, Anora actually won five awards out of six Oscar nominations (though Borisov didn't win his nomination - would have been hella awkward if he did).

Anyway, let's break down the plot.

Plot:

Anora (Mikey Madison) - but who prefers the shortened form of her name, Ani - works at a New York strip club when one night, the boss of the club demands Ani service a specific high-value patron because Ani can speak Russian (though not fluently). The patron is Ivan 'Vanya' Zhakarov (Mark Eydelshteyn), a young Russian man who prefers using his parents' wealth to party rather than study.

Sunday Too Far Away (1975 film)

Category: Australian drama

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It was the movie that kicked off the Golden Age of Australian cinema and propelled Jack Thompson (and his jiggling butt cheeks) to stardom - Sunday Too Far Away.

Now, I initially thought Sunday Too Far Away was actually a reference to the grind of life on a station where no matter what day of week it is, Sunday (the day of rest) is always too far away. Turns out that it actually comes from a poem reflecting the life of a shearer's wife where the line goes “Friday night [he’s] too tired; Saturday night too drunk; Sunday, too far away”. But given the fact that there are no shearer's wives in this movie, I am going to stand by my interpretation!

And just a heads-up, I will give a brief explanation of any terms I think need expanding upon in the plot summary.

The plot:

Set in 1955 and in an unnamed state of Australia (though most likely South Australia), Foley (Thompson) is driving to a major country town to find work as a shearer when he falls asleep behind the wheel of his car and rolls it over, forcing him to walk the rest of the way.

There Will Be Blood (2007 film) + UPDATE

Category: Period drama

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

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Numerous movie critics have rated There Will Be Blood as among one of the best movies of the 21st century, and I'm telling you straight up - they're right! It's a masterclass in storytelling, scene setting and character work.

Even if the only scene in this movie was Daniel Day-Lewis' emotive utterance of those immortal words, "I drink your milkshake!", that alone would be worth the price of admission - but darn it, this movie is excellent in so many ways.

Let's go through the plot outline and then I'll get into my thoughts.

The plot:

The story revolves around Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) and his rise, his personal struggles and his descent in to anger, loneliness and madness.

The story starts in 1898 where we see Plainview, a prospector (someone that searches for precious metals/minerals in a given area) spending his days and nights digging along a shaft and hacking away at the rock deep down, hoping to make a significant find. Plainview makes a find and (literally) drags himself into town to get his find assayed (inspected for purity and integrity). With his find certified, he begins a mining operation that employs numerous men.