As another "haven't watched" guy - do you think the average viewer, and especially the average male viewer, is likely to interpret this film in the same way as you do?
Maybe this is another Cuties, where the film actually has a decent message but the way it is advertised is utterly toxic?
Anora is art and entertainment, not blatant propaganda—whether abolitionist or pro-prostitution. Its "message" is layered, complex, and ultimately open-ended. However, it certainly does not airbrush Ani's existence or that of her co-workers as stripper-prostitutes. I can’t imagine anyone leaving the theater feeling they've been told "sex work" is appealing, empowering, or soul-affirming, or that the men that make up the demand for it are “nice” or “good”, as “everyday” and, in some cases, disarmingly attractive, as they may be. Two of the posts linked above criticise Baker precisely for the film’s ultimately negative ("reactionary") stance on prostitution.
Unlike some commentators (see posts above), I saw Igor’s feelings for Ani uncynically. I therefore thought the film presented a deeply romantic affirmation of the importance and beauty of genuine, organic human connection/attraction—perhaps even its political significance—at a time when personhood and sexuality are hypercommodified through countless, ubiquitous, and ultimately harmful prostitution-adjacent practices (https://substack.com/home/post/p-157561906), as well as “disenchanted” and reduced to crude evolutionary and economic logic. I think there isn’t much room for interpretation of this aspect of the film, but many disagree!
As another "haven't watched" guy - do you think the average viewer, and especially the average male viewer, is likely to interpret this film in the same way as you do?
Maybe this is another Cuties, where the film actually has a decent message but the way it is advertised is utterly toxic?
I really do! I’m obviously squeezing a lot of juice out of this lemon, which the average viewer, male or female, might not be so inclined or moved to do. I’m certainly not alone, however, in picking up on Baker's critique of the 21st-century neoliberal condition, in which the ever-expanding “sex-work” industry epitomises the “complex interplay between romance, labour, and capital (…) in which intimacy and transaction are the same” (https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/under-the-table/; https://angelfoodmag.com/romance-labor; https://internetprincess.substack.com/p/anoras-american-dream).
Anora is art and entertainment, not blatant propaganda—whether abolitionist or pro-prostitution. Its "message" is layered, complex, and ultimately open-ended. However, it certainly does not airbrush Ani's existence or that of her co-workers as stripper-prostitutes. I can’t imagine anyone leaving the theater feeling they've been told "sex work" is appealing, empowering, or soul-affirming, or that the men that make up the demand for it are “nice” or “good”, as “everyday” and, in some cases, disarmingly attractive, as they may be. Two of the posts linked above criticise Baker precisely for the film’s ultimately negative ("reactionary") stance on prostitution.
Unlike some commentators (see posts above), I saw Igor’s feelings for Ani uncynically. I therefore thought the film presented a deeply romantic affirmation of the importance and beauty of genuine, organic human connection/attraction—perhaps even its political significance—at a time when personhood and sexuality are hypercommodified through countless, ubiquitous, and ultimately harmful prostitution-adjacent practices (https://substack.com/home/post/p-157561906), as well as “disenchanted” and reduced to crude evolutionary and economic logic. I think there isn’t much room for interpretation of this aspect of the film, but many disagree!
Let me know what you think if you watch it :)