#293. 'Anora'
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The crew tackles this year's Best Picture winner, Anora, Sean Baker's stripper-marries-a-Russian-oligarch's-son dramedy starring Mikey Madison. Sonny gives the deep-dive review, calling it a lesser Baker film than Red Rocket or The Florida Project but praising how it manages to be both empathetic toward Anora and unsparing about the bad choices that leave her, in the film's final shot, realizing her whole worldview has been warped into pure transaction; he singles out the bald Russian henchman's near-silent Oscar-nominated performance. JVL is more skeptical, joking that the Academy gave Best Picture to "a perfectly nice little movie" that critics only inflate because it feels vaguely foreign and deep (Brighton Beach standing in for the "lost in translation" exoticism of Parasite), and both agree 2024 was simply a weak year for movies. Mike, who watched with his son Flash, found the middle stretch dragged but the ending stuck the landing, and the group debates the film's gender politics (JVL notes the story reads very differently if the genders were flipped) and jokes about A24/Neon's inability to market anything that isn't "elevated horror." Before any of that, the opening third runs long on banter: Sonny explains the Sucker Punch hat he bought off eBay as an homage to On Cinema, recounts his fence blowing over in a Dallas windstorm and rigging a ladder-plus-propane-tank fix before a professional showed up with rebar, and Mike describes his kids' Pokémon-card obsession and the whiplash of baseball draft season starting the moment basketball ends. JVL details his impending debut at a Star Wars Unlimited card tournament with his son G-Money, riffs at length on the tabletop-gaming subculture (with a Henry Cavill Warhammer detour), and the trio also runs through a dead box office weekend (Captain America still #1, the new thriller Last Breath), previews Bong Joon-ho's Mickey 17, and recaps the Oscars ceremony itself, including Conan O'Brien's hosting, Kieran Culkin's speech, and Morgan Freeman's In Memoriam tribute to Gene Hackman.
From the show notes
The best picture-winning film by Sean Baker is on VOD now and hitting Hulu in a couple of weeks. It's also back in theaters this weekend! Check it out, we think you'll enjoy it. (But is it really best picture-worthy? Welllll.)
Full transcript
Sonny00:00:00Like, what do you do to get all of this?
Mike00:00:03I am telling you, you do not know this guy.
Sonny00:00:07Vanya!
Guest00:00:10It's a frog marriage, and we're getting in an old S.A.P.
Mike00:00:24Welcome to the Sub-Beacon Podcast. I am your co-host, Mike Warren. Joining me, as always, are my two co-hosts, who don't have Instagram. They're adults, man. Jonathan V. Last and Sonny Bunch. Join us over at Sub-Beacon.com. Tell your friends and family the only place they can listen to this show is at Sub-Beacon.com. Become a patron. Join the conversation in the comments. Get new episodes every Friday and bonus episodes when we make them. Do it over at Sub-Beacon.com. We are going to be talking about Anora, the Oscar-winning best picture movie, Anora, later on in the show. But first, Sonny, what is going on with you, Mr. Sucker Punch Hat?
Sonny00:01:12I put this on because my hair is a mess. I took a shower. I didn't—it doesn't matter. People aren't going to be able to see it anyway.
Mike00:01:20It's a podcast. I bought this hat because—
Sonny00:01:22It should be mentioning what I'm seeing. I assume you guys don't watch On Cinema, the Tim Heider. Oh, yes.
Mike00:01:28I'm a big On Cinema fan. I've never even heard of it.
Sonny00:01:30Yeah, so I—JVL, that doesn't surprise me that you—but, Mike, you watch Cinema On Cinema?
Mike00:01:36Yes, I'm not caught up, but there was a moment, like, during the pandemic where I just, like, watched episodes of On Cinema at the cinema, like, one after another and was, like, crying, laughing.
Sonny00:01:48So, yes. It's a fascinating show because the—so it's—the premise here, for folks who don't know, Tim Heidecker of Tim and Eric fans. Does, like, essentially a—a Siskel and Ebert-style show with—with this other guy. And the—the—the—the show has evolved so much over the years. It has this weirdly deep lore to it. Correct. Like, I—I don't want to—I don't want to get into all that, but the reason I have this sucker punch hat is because Tim's co-host, Greg Turkington, on one of—on every episode, he has, like, a different piece of swag. He has, like, a different— item of movie swag. And one—in, like, the second episode of this latest season, he had this sucker punch hat. And I was like, I need that hat. So I bought it on eBay. It was, like, $15. It was the best $15 I've spent all year.
Mike00:02:42I give that hat five bags of popcorn.
Sonny00:02:44Five bags of popcorn. I, uh—no, I don't—I don't know how I got off on this—oh, because I put the hat on. Anyway. What's going on with you, Sonny? Nobody know who I—nobody know who—nobody cared who I was until I put the hat on. It's a—it's a reference to The Dark Knight Rises, you know. Anyway.
Mike00:03:02JVL is loving this banter.
Sonny00:03:04I don't—I don't—I don't really have anything interesting going on in my life except for the fact that my fence kind of blew down the other day. That was not—that was not ideal. We've had some big windstorms. It's not supposed to do that, is it? We've had some big windstorms. And, uh, I was driving—I was driving past the side of my yard the other day and noticed that my—my fence was kind of, like, kinked inward. And I was like— Hmm. You know, I've got, like, a wooden fence, you know, just like a normal wooden fence around the yard. It was bowed in a solid, like, you know—I—I don't know what—I don't know what that angle—I guess that would be, like, a hundred and, like, instead of being, like, a flat, what, a hundred and eighty degrees?
Mike00:03:44A hundred and eighty—a hundred and eighty degree angle.
Sonny00:03:45It would probably—it was probably more like—it's probably more like a hundred and seventy degrees, a hundred and sixty degrees, something like that. Not—not ideal. Not an ideal situation. To—to find yourself in. So we had a guy come out, and I was, like, I was convinced that we were going to get hit with a, you got to replace this whole fence, it's old, we can't just—we're not—we don't have enough time to replace one section of fence, you know, this is a—we got to— And instead, like, it's—it's, you know, it's going to be a relatively easy fix. They're not even going to have to replace most of the wood. They just have to reset, like, eight poles in the ground, and that's pretty—that's going to be, you know, that'll be expensive. Was this—was this—
Mike00:04:26Was this fence—was this fence at your house?
Sonny00:04:29Oh, yeah.
Mike00:04:30When you bought it?
Sonny00:04:31Yeah, yeah, yeah. It is an old—it is an old fence, is the thing. It's—it—this fence is at least 20 years old, so I'm not, like—if we had to replace it, I wouldn't have been crying, exactly, but it would have been pretty annoying. Sure. Um, but the, uh, but anyway, I, like, I also don't want to replace the fence because the fence has, uh, the fence is—is the only fence— in our neighborhood that has, like, cascading ivy going over it. It's like Wrigley Field. My fence is like the—the walls of Wrigley Field. It's got this ivy that's going—now, the ivy is destroying the fence every single day. I was gonna say, that seems like a problem. The ivy's, like, getting into the gaps of the fence, and it's—it's breaking. So, the—the ivy will end up being the reason the fence has to be replaced in full at some point anyway, but I really like how it looks right now, so I'm just— it would, like, it would—the whole thing would just come apart. The ivy is actually basically holding it together at this point, I think. It's basically, like, tape wrapped all over it.
JVL00:05:35Nature's rebar.
Sonny00:05:37So, uh, speaking of rebar, we had—so, like, there have been—it's been real windy. It's been real windy the last couple days out in Dallas, like, 60, 70 mile per hour gusts. So, I was, like, really—
Mike00:05:47Same here on the East Coast, by the way.
Sonny00:05:48I was super worried the thing was gonna come down, so I, like, went out to my—I went out to my garage, and I got—I got— I basically had to figure out how to prop up this fence. And let me tell—let me tell you guys about the process of propping up a fence when you don't have easy access to things like— I mean, I guess I could have gone to Home Depot and bought some rebar, but no, no, no. I'm not doing that for this one little thing. So, I—basically, I just went and I got a ladder. Put the ladder up against the fence at an angle, at, like, a 45-degree angle. And then got an empty propane tank and put the propane tank— Into the—into the ladder to give it some weight and some heft. And you know what? It worked perfectly. I solved that problem with my monkey brain and my tools. Take that, Wynn.
Mike00:06:38You went the full redneck.
Sonny00:06:39You went the full white trash. Take that, Wynn's beliefs. Anyway, the company that's fixing the fence sent a guy out and he was like, This'll probably hold till next week. I was like, oh, that's good to know. That's—that's—that's real—that's real reassuring. He got some rebar out of his truck. And he put it into the ground behind—behind the ladder. He's like—he's basically stabilized the ladder at the base of the ladder. He's like, yeah, no, this is good. This'll work. This is—this is gonna be a situation that's good for everyone.
Mike00:07:11Rebar is like duct tape. Like, it's an incredible product. It can do so much for structure. Nothing it can't do. Nothing it can't do. Yeah, exactly. I love rebar. I love a nice little bit of rebar.
Sonny00:07:23Anyway, that's what's going on in my house. Sucker Punch has a rebar. Rebar and ladders.
JVL00:07:27Anything blowing over in your house? We are 48 hours away from my entry to my very first ever tabletop card game tournament.
?00:07:40Oh!
JVL00:07:41At the local game shop, the LGS, as we call it in the community, to play Star Wars Unlimited. And I have to say, I'm very excited about this. G-Money, who— We're going together, and he was very clear. He said, we're getting two entries, right? I said, well, why? He's like, because I don't want to have to play with you, like, next to me, like, dad. So, okay. So he's going to play on his own. But over the weekend, I had to stop into the local game shop to just pick up some things. And I walked in, and they were having a tournament for another game. Now, I don't know what game this was. But I know that in addition to cards, it involved dice. So there was a lot of dice shaking. And it also involved very large maps put between the two players and many miniature metal figures of various wizards and creatures, most of which had been painted to an incredible detail. Is it Warhammer?
Sonny00:08:51Is that?
JVL00:08:52I don't know. I don't know. All I'm going to say is that. Did you ask? I didn't. I didn't.
Sonny00:08:59You didn't want to get involved.
JVL00:09:00I will simply say this. In terms of the type of person who engages in such an activity, such a pastime, such a recreation and leisure, whatever you're picturing in your head right now, it's more than that. You know, sometimes you hear about a thing and then the person follows it up. No, but everybody's totally normal. Actually, it's like it's just totally. Nope. Nobody. Nope, nope, nope. That's amazing. This is if I say to you, imagine what sort of adults would gather together on a Saturday afternoon to play some form of game involving collectible cards, dice and model wizards. Whatever you're picturing, it was more than that.
Mike00:09:49I have in my head the image from the Portlandia sketch, the nerds. Nerd PSA. Sonny, are you familiar with this?
Sonny00:09:59I don't remember that one. I don't remember that one.
Mike00:10:01It's it's it's got a it's got like a hot girl with glasses and a bar and she's talking to somebody and she says, I love Star Wars. I'm such a nerd. I'm such a nerd. And then it like grays out and an actual like real not. I do. To explain how this is this is wrong and you shouldn't be passing yourself off a nerd as a nerd because he is a real nerd. He he explains. The only reason I have a tan is because I'm I was out the other weekend LARPing and it wasn't like me.
JVL00:10:37Yeah, I am curious to see if the vibe of the Star Wars Unlimited card tournament is different. I will say there were some younger kids and maybe maybe there'll be kids. I don't know. It did. It did scare me a little bit because that isn't really what I'm. Signing up for I'm saying so our our buddy my Tom Abella big card game player game guy love Tom's games. I thought that I was signing up for a community filled with people like Tom who is totally normal. Tom Tom is one of the people I would say like, you know, imagine guys like super into games, but actually he's totally normal and really cool, right? That's this. This room was not filled with Tom's. It was filled with something else and I'm hoping that is a different crowd this Saturday. I will. I will report back to you boys next week.
Sonny00:11:29I think I think it's well, first off. It's going to be the exact same type of people, but they're the same people.
JVL00:11:35There's literally the same people.
Sonny00:11:38I would say there's there's a chance. There's a chance. It's not quite as as bad because you got to understand once you get into like the painting figurines. Right crowd. That's like a past time. It's a lifestyle. That's a whole different level of though. Those those are the people who like look at Guillermo del Toro and are like, I should be him, but they don't have they don't have the talent or the money to be Guillermo del Toro. So they paint the cosplay. It's fine. Look and look, it's fine. It's it's fine to have hobbies. The other you know, who else is like this? Who else is actually like this? Fucking Henry Cavill. Henry Cavill is like, oh, yeah, it's like a it's like a legendary. He like he. He's in he's in the forthcoming Warhammer series. He's like an executive producer on it because he is like a tabletop game. He's a tabletop gamer. He's like he he he quit the Witcher because they weren't true enough to the Witcher for his take. He quit the Witcher because they were like, you are not being honest to the character of the Witcher. I'm and I'm not dealing with this. I refuse to I refuse to partake in your shenanigans, Netflix. So that's going to say that's the kind of guy. But but but but like Henry Cavill is a relatively. I mean, he's like he's an actor. He's a he's he can get away with this because he's attractive and physically intimidating. These guys.
JVL00:13:09I was going to say, I'm sure he cleans up at those tournaments. But I would say that not physically attractive. Maybe they are spiritually attractive and emotionally. Everybody can speak with them. But if we were only to like bad people judge books by their covers. None of these guys would ever touch another human being.
Sonny00:13:29Books have covers for a reason.
JVL00:13:32There's a reason they put covers on the books.
Sonny00:13:34Books have covers for a reason. And the reason you make the cover of a book attractive is to entice people to read the book. And if you don't care about the cover of your book, nobody's going to read your book. And that's all on you. That's all on you.
JVL00:13:47Not a lot of sex going on at this sort of thing.
Sonny00:13:49I think I I once wrote I once wrote a whole column for The Washington Post that was titled. You should judge some books by their cover. It was because it was that awful.
JVL00:13:57It was about romance novels.
Sonny00:13:59No, no, it was it was about the Sean Penn released a novel and it had the worst cover I've ever seen on a novel. And the title of the book was like Uncle Bob who don't do good or some some nonsense like that. And I was just like I was like this book. You should judge it. You should judge it by the cover. Don't read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm writing.
JVL00:14:19I'm Tropic Thunder.
Sonny00:14:20I have always said you should never judge things just by the advertising. But I'm judging this. And I think it's fine. I actually I've this this the cover of this book has turned me around on this saying the saying is actually bad. You should judge some books by their cover.
Mike00:14:35Can I just say before we move on that, you know, to say a word for the, you know, complicated tabletop games with the painted figurines community is that there are communities like this all across this giant country of ours. Enthusiasts of all kinds in who are interested in all kinds of weird niche little sub cultures. And I say bully for them. That's great. I hope they get the enjoyment that I imagine they do from this. And I'm happy that JVL you have joined one of one such.
Sonny00:15:19The latest initiate.
Mike00:15:20Slow down there. Tex.
Sonny00:15:22Jonathan.
JVL00:15:22Michael, how are you, buddy?
Sonny00:15:23Wait, wait. Before we before we move on to this. I do. I need to. I need to say I ordered a starter deck of the Star Wars Unlimited card game to play with my kids.
JVL00:15:35Really?
Sonny00:15:35To see if it's to see if it's any fun to see if I can get them into it. I literally it's coming today, Thursday, March 6th.
JVL00:15:43Which one? Which starter deck did you get? I got Spark of the Rebellion or the Shadow of the Empire.
Sonny00:15:49Spark of the Rebellion.
JVL00:15:50That's the best one because it has Vader and Luke. That's the best of the three starter decks.
Sonny00:15:55Well, that's. I mean, that's that's why, because it had Vader and Luke.
JVL00:15:58Do you need a help sort of learning the mechanics in the tutorial? I might.
Sonny00:16:02Although you did play Yu-Gi-Oh! I read I read the I read the rules online and I watched a video about the rules. And there was lots of like there's lots of like. Wait, do you see the shit YouTube serves you now? Yeah, tapped. They're tapped. Once they're expended, once your resources are expended.
JVL00:16:22We call them exhausted, Sonny. Once you're mad. Your mana is exhausted. You've tapped your mana.
Mike00:16:33So it's interesting hearing about all of this, because my kids are my oldest boys. I have a thing I've mentioned before are into the Pokemon cards, which I was never into and was never like I knew people who were into them and I just didn't get it. And now that my kids are into it, I really don't get it. But I was talking to my oldest yesterday and as we were cleaning up in the kitchen after dinner and he was telling me all about because they trade cards at school a little bit. And, you know, they always my my boys love to like lay them out in an array, you know, array them out and then like put them back in their sleeves in different combinations or sometimes just stare at them or ask. They've stopped asking me, but they. Ask my wife to like look up how much does this card how much is this card worth? And so my oldest was talking thirty five cents kid. No, this one this one's worth fifteen dollars or even more, you know, I'm like, well, OK, maybe a perfect, you know, never, never touched except on the edges version of that card could go on eBay for something like that. But I don't I don't shatter their dreams. But he was he was talking about. His cards and how much they're worth, and I said, so do you ever do you ever intend on selling any of these cards like like there's a lot of discussion in our house about how much these cards are worth, but does that mean you intend to like sell them and make the money? And he looked at me like I was, you know, speaking Martian and he was like, well, no, it's it's just something to talk about with your. Friends. Yeah, like how much your card is worth. Nobody intends on selling them.
JVL00:18:31Well, not now. He says this is cardboard gold. This is corrugated gold. Michael, you got to hold you to hold it. Diamond hands. You hold that Pikachu VXR foil and someday that $15 card will be worth $1575 or $3.
Sonny00:18:52First, you have to spend $20 getting it.
JVL00:18:55$20 to send it to PSA. And and that now I this is I will say one thing. I have found the organ the organizing aspect of this journey. The G money and I are on to be sexually satisfying in a way that I had not prepared for. I just get them and you just or we're going to organize them. How are we going to how we're going to group them and organize them? Well, we're going to do it by the group. Green aspect and we're going to put the uncommons in the front ranking by mana cost and then put the comments. But do you have any if you would like me to send you some spare cards to augment your starter decks? I'd be happy to send them your way this week. Do you have do you have like the binders with the card slots? I have baseball cards. So we have a binder that we use for special cards. So by special, I mean the ones that are either rare or legendary in status or that come with like different cosmetics like the rare insert cosmetics. But for the the real cards that you play, I found a gentleman on Etsy who with a 3D printer makes a Star Wars deck box that is if this thing. Oh, and it really cleans up easy to Just wipes right off. It's like it's coated in Teflon or something. All right, wait, let's yeah.
Sonny00:20:33Just put it right in the washing machine, huh? Just throw it right in the dishwasher. Top rack.
Mike00:20:41Okay, nothing else is going on with me. I don't know. Oh, the only thing that's happening is we're in the liminal space between basketball and baseball seasons, at least for my 10 year old. We actually have one final basketball game to play for the team that I'm coaching a makeup game on this weekend. But baseball season unofficially begins this evening with my 10 year old's first practice of the season. And it's I just I feel like I need a more of a break than what I've got, you know, like, like, literally, as the evening. After his final basketball game, I'm sitting at home and like relaxing and watching a movie by myself and I get the email about which baseball team he's been he's been drafted on. And here's you guys combine for for the it's not it's not quite a combine. It's it's but it's it's the 910 11 year old version of that. It's just it's you know, it's it's how that's what we did. They think as a whole, it's like a half day combine all the kids have numbers on them. The coaches are standing around with clipboards and whatnot. So so this is the number one pick every year he played. Right. I have no idea what pick mine is. But it's not a half day. It's it's literally took five minutes. And it was like running, catching, batting. And I mean, half the coaches I know half the coaches that were sitting in there. So it's like, no, it's it's it's all kind of all know what the kids do. You all know these kids. Yeah, no, ours. It was this so ridiculous. You would have six coaches standing there with radar guns on these 10 year olds. Yeah, what are you doing? You insane people? That's that was not happening. But anyway, but it's like you get you get the email. And it's great. And I'm happy with the coach that that he has. I know him. And but it's, you know, it's that I've done it too, as a coach myself, that lengthy initial email that has all the dates and the details and the uniform information. And it's just, it's like, you're sitting there and you're you're going finally, the season's over. And we just take a break. And then it just come the next one just comes and slaps you in the face. So here we are. Play ball.
JVL00:23:15Sorry that you allowed your kids to do winter basketball. You should have been I mean, the winter training is where all the gains are made for spring baseball. So you really put your kids behind the curve here. I don't have what have I done in the in the cage, four or five days a week during the winter season. But you know, I guess if you don't want your kids to be to be really, really good Little League baseball players, Michael, I mean, the thing is JVO JVO. I don't really love them that much. That's, that's kind of it. Just don't love them that much. I feel get on the bag, Brandon. Remember that? Will Ferrell live off the damn shed.
Sonny00:24:01Get off the shed.
Mike00:24:03Okay, so let's move on, though. Let's discuss. Let's discuss box office here. Once again, Captain America Brave New World at the top of the box office. It's again, I can say this.
JVL00:24:18I feel so good.
Mike00:24:21It's I keep saying it, but it's a really fallow time. For the box office right now. There was a number two, a new movie, Last Breath. Sonny, what is Last Breath? What is this?
Sonny00:24:33I feel like I last breath is it's a movie about some like deep sea diver guys who get cut off. It's not horror, but no, it's like it's a thriller. It's like a it's like a I don't know. It's based on some documentary. But the long and the short of it is Woody Harrelson is an old time grizzled. Deep sea diver repairman of like, I don't know, oil rigs or something. And he has to he has to guide Simu Liu on his first mission where he gets cut off from the surface. And I guess Woody Harrelson's got to save him. Simu Liu's got to stay alive.
JVL00:25:12Wasn't this a Robert De Niro Cuba Gooding Jr. movie? Once upon a time. I feel like 15 years ago, 20 years ago, there was a movie in which Cuba Gooding Jr. But it was like old.
Sonny00:25:25But it was like old timey. Right. No, I remember. Yeah, I know. That was like that was like that was a movie, I think, about training the first African-American divers. I don't know. That had that had a race angle. This does not have a race angle. This is just Simu Liu is just a guy.
JVL00:25:39Simu Liu is Asian.
Sonny00:25:41Yeah, but he's Canadian Asian. I don't know that he's from Toronto. I don't know. OK.
Mike00:25:48Sorry, buddy. All right. Do we have any do we have do we have any sophisticated box office thoughts?
Sonny00:25:53I mean, no, I mean, it's it's just it's another. Dead weekend. I mean, like the most interesting thing that's happening next weekend is Mickey 17 is coming out, which is Bong Joon-ho's first theatrical film since Parasite won Best Picture at the Oscars in 2019. Is it the Sam Rockwell movie? No, it's well, Sam Rockwell might be in it, but it's Robert Pattinson.
JVL00:26:16Oh, Robert Pattinson. Right. The clones. The clones who dies over and over.
Sonny00:26:20It's right. So like the idea I the I actually read the novel.
JVL00:26:24Is it about capitalism?
Sonny00:26:25Well, so what's interesting? So this could be interesting. I'm I see the movie today. I see the movie in like three hours after we tape this. But I am curious to see what they do with that premise, because in the book, it is not really so like you if you've seen Snowpiercer, if you've seen Parasite, if you've seen Okja, you know, you would think like, OK, this is Bong Joon-ho doing a movie about how capitalism greases the wheels of progress with the blood of the worker. Right. Like that's basically. That's basically the the setup. Fact check.
JVL00:26:59True.
Sonny00:26:59But that is not really that's actually not precisely what the premise of the book is in the book. He's part of a he's part of a long term beachhead colony to like a distant planet, like basically in the it's the future. In the future, we send beachhead colonies out to like every planet we can find. Half of them take half of them don't take. But the society itself is actually pretty socialist. It's like it's like they they have it's a post-scarcity society. Every company that that makes the things that make the society run is taxed at like 90 percent. And they distribute that money to the people in the form of a UBI, a universal basic income. And so like he leaves, he gets on this mission in part because he's trying to escape a debt from the world that he lives. But the real reason he leaves is because he's just bored. He has he has like no purpose. He has no he he he is a he is a he is a an individual without purpose in society because the job that he does isn't really a job. It's just a it's just a hobby. So he he takes this gig, which involves him dying repeatedly. But again, it's not in the service. It's not in the service of capitalism. It's not like it's not like a guy. It's not like. There's a guy at the top of the food chain who's like, we got to kill him again to make us an extra 17 cents on widgets.
JVL00:28:31Right.
Sonny00:28:32It's like it's like to save. It's literally to save this enormous colony of people who, again, exist in this kind of like socialist society. Again, I'm very curious to see what they actually do with this in the movie itself. Should I read the book?
JVL00:28:47Is the book enjoyable?
Sonny00:28:49It's fine. It's it's a quick read. I read it in I read it in about a day and a day and a half. So and I'm a pretty slow reader. So it's a very quick read. It's not it's not unentertaining. I don't think it's great or anything. I mostly just wanted to read it to prep for this movie. But it's not it's not bad. It's not great. It's not bad. It's fine.
Mike00:29:09Why is the novel Mickey seven and the movie Mickey 17?
Sonny00:29:14It's very confusing to me.
Mike00:29:16But like. But like, but why? But why would they make that change?
Sonny00:29:21I would assume in the movie that we'll see him die in humorous ways. Ten more times. That's the.
JVL00:29:28OK, I mean, I would assume that they just tested it. And the title 17 sounded better to people.
Mike00:29:36That's that's what I was wondering. Maybe.
Sonny00:29:38I mean, I don't know.
Mike00:29:39It's just it's just a little weird. All right. Well, I guess we got that to look forward to. What? What?
JVL00:29:46I was just going to say, it's a little box office recap. Can I have an Oscars recap? Because I did not watch a single minute of the Oscars. I did not know who any of the nominees were. Aside from Conclave. And I had not seen anything. I this is the first time I now feel like the type of old person who no longer has heard of the band performing at halftime in the Super Bowl every other year. And this is like I used to do Oscar pools. I would make sure that I had seen every single nominee of every major category. And I had strong thoughts. And now it's just all beyond me. Were the Oscars good this year?
Mike00:30:22That seems to be the consensus, right, Sonny, that like the the the ceremony itself was like pretty well done. And Conan O'Brien did a great job of hosting. Right.
Sonny00:30:33Yeah. I mean, you got to break this down in two separate ways. Right. The first way is how was the actual production of the show? And I thought the production was very good. I it was it was very entertaining. I know you're not a Conan guy, JVL, but I I very much am a Conan guy. And it was like a perfect mix of him being emcee, master of ceremonies, hosting, but also doing like some wacky bits, which were funny. I like I like Conan's wacky bits. So that was good. And then the awards, I thought I thought, look, I thought the awards were pretty, pretty, pretty well done in terms of who won what. You know, we're going to talk about the big winner here in a second. But they were spread out pretty well. I think most of the winners were deserved. There were very few that I was like, well, why? Why is this? Why? Is this happening? I don't know. But I think of the movies that were nominated for Best Picture, I thought Onora was the best of them. So I was pretty happy with it winning for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Screenplay and Best Editing. Five awards. It also they also like spread the awards out a lot this year. You know, a lot of years you have like something wins 12 or 13 awards or 10, 10 trophies or whatever. And this was this was pretty well spread out. But, you know, Conclave won Best Original Screenplay or Best Adapted Screenplay. Amelia Perez won a couple awards. Conclave won a couple awards. Wicked won a couple of awards. Even Dune won a couple of awards.
JVL00:32:13So I mean, it was I thought it was.
Mike00:32:15What what did you think? I was entirely charmed by Kieran Culkin's acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actor. It was it just made me laugh. And it was I thought it was for a guy who like sexist.
Sonny00:32:31Frankly, I thought he goes up there and he tells his wife to start cranking out babies. What is this? The Middle Ages? What do we have? Cholera hunting our children?
Mike00:32:41Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's a good point. And I apologize. And I will do better and try to do better.
Sonny00:32:47Endeavor to do better, please.
Mike00:32:49OK. All right. I don't know. Any other any other Oscar thoughts?
Sonny00:32:54The End Memoriam. The End Memoriam was good. Gene Hackman got a got a nice little shout out. You know who? Why?
JVL00:32:59Why did Gene Hackman? It's supposed to be the previous year.
Sonny00:33:03Well, it's it's the previous year between Oscars. It's like the period in between Oscars.
JVL00:33:07It's like the fiscal year. It's the Oscar year. I thought it was just 2024 in the way like you had to die in 2024, the way you have to be on X number of screens in 2024. No, that's not how it works. To qualify. That's not how it works. But isn't that how the awards count?
Sonny00:33:23Yes. The awards. Oh, so we have different. Different rules. Yes. Different rules for deaths. The awards and the deaths have different rules. That's right. That's right. The what was interesting, though, was Morgan Freeman introduced the Gene Hackman segment. I don't know if you guys remember, but Morgan Freeman got kind of sort of canceled in 2018 for being a little handsy with the ladies. The amnesty is on. The amnesty is in full swing. That that that whole thing is over. People are done with that. So how can.
JVL00:33:55How can anybody stay mad at Morgan Freeman?
Sonny00:33:57How could you stay mad? He's an American treasure. America's conscience. That voice.
Mike00:34:01It was a it was a it was a very nice. It was a very nice send off to Gene Hackman from like an actual guy who worked with him on like what was so that what was that? Unforgiven. What was the other movie he was in with him? I can't remember. The other one. I don't remember. Bat 21. That's it. I don't know. Absolute power. Yeah. OK. All right. Well, why don't we move on from. Uh, from the ceremony itself to the best picture winner. We're talking about a Nora this week and we all saw a Nora. Yes. Um, Sonny, you want to give us a big play review of a Nora?
Sonny00:34:42Sure. A Nora. Um, a Nora is, uh, so a Nora is the latest movie from Sean Baker, uh, who is the director of amongst other films, the Florida project. And red rocket, uh, and his, his body of work has been pretty tightly focused these last 10 years or so on the lives of sex workers. What the euphemism we use for prostitutes these days. Um, and, uh, a Nora continues in that tradition. She is a, uh, she's played by Mikey Madison. She's a stripper in a Manhattan strip club. And, uh, as part of her duties, she, uh, uh, provides a lap dance to a real the son of a Russian oligarch. And this Russian oligarch kid is like, Hey, why don't you hang out with me? I'll give you money to be my friend and have sex with me for the next few weeks. And she says, yes, I would like to have money for sex and friendship.
JVL00:35:39Pay her, pay that whore her money, pay that, pay that whore her money.
Sonny00:35:44And so they, they're hanging out and they're having a lot of fun and they're doing all sorts of crazy things in Manhattan and they go off to Vegas and they get married, they get married. And she's like, this is my ticket out of. Not quite poverty, but lower middle-class Manhattan life. I'm, I'm gonna, you know, I'm taking it out.
JVL00:36:01Isn't she proud of what she does?
Mike00:36:03Also it's Brooklyn, not Manhattan, all, all of them.
Sonny00:36:05Well, yeah, she lives in Brooklyn.
JVL00:36:07She works in whatever the strip clubs, she lives in Brooklyn.
Sonny00:36:10She works in Manhattan. Yeah. Uh, whatever. Yeah.
JVL00:36:13All the good strip clubs are down close to wall street. Yes.
Sonny00:36:17That's where, well, that's because that's where the, the finances people are.
JVL00:36:22They love, as we remember from hustlers. Which is the best movie ever done about strippers.
Sonny00:36:28Uh, so anyway, uh, they get married and they, they get married whirlwind romance and then his parents find out about it and they're like, no, you are breaking up and I'm sending Russian goons to do this. And what's interesting about this movie is it, the first, the first 40 minutes, first 30 to 40 minutes are like, kind of like rom-com meet cute, like pretty woman style, uh, relationship comedy, drama, whatever. And then it turns into an entirely different movie for about an hour. Um, there's this whole stretch and this, I, I will say my one big critique of this movie is that this period, this, this section is a little bit too long, but it's really interesting because it is like kind of a combination of the John Cassavetes style, New York Odyssey, like guys running around the city trying to, to accomplish something with the slapstick of a Coen brothers movie. So like there, there's this, this whole section begins. With the, the goon showing up at the kid's house and they're trying to restrain an aura and she like fights them off and she eventually gets, but the whole thing is shot like a slapstick, not quite three stooges, but like very slapsticky again, a lot like something like you would see in raising Arizona or, um, something of that nature. Then they run all around. They're trying to find, they're trying to find the kid who has run away. They're trying to, they're trying to get him and she is convinced that he is not going to end their marriage because. His parents say so. And the parents show up and it's like, oh no, this is immediately getting annulled or she's going to like be in the bottom of the ocean. Like it was one of the, there's, there are two, there are two ways that this ends with, with the wedding, uh, being, being annulled or, or her, uh, ending. I, I look, I, I don't think this is Baker's best movie. I think Red Rocket is, and we can talk about why in a little bit, but the, um, but this movie does something. Very interesting. And I think kind of special. You don't see it all that often. It manages to be both empathetic toward the characters involved. It's empathetic toward Anora. I think, I think we are, we are very much put in her headspace in terms of she sees this, maybe she's in love with the kid. I don't know, but really what she sees it is a way out. Like she likes him. They're, they're fine together. They're fun together. She sees it as her way out. But it never excuses her for what she does. It, she, she makes a series of bad choices in this movie. She makes a series of bad life choices before this movie starts and during the movie. And we are never expected to give her a pass on that. And the last shot of the movie spoils.
JVL00:39:16What are her bad life choices?
Sonny00:39:18Well, being a whore for, for starters. She's a stripper. She's, she's an escort. See, so this is an interesting thing about the movie.
JVL00:39:25Strippers don't hook and hookers don't strip. This is one of the iron walls of sex work I've always been told.
Sonny00:39:30She does it all. This is very incorrect. This is very incorrect. And this is an interesting thing about the movie, right? Is that, is that she is essentially. There's a moment in, there's a moment in the sequence, again, that I was talking about before where she gets kidnapped, right? And the, she gets very, very. Very mad when one of the Russian goons calls her an escort says, you know, you were, and she's, she throws a fit. She's like, I'm his wife. I'm his wife. And, and, and I, I, the way I read that scene, I don't think we're ever, I don't know. I don't think we're ever meant to say, no, she is his wife. What is, what's he talking about? She is, she is a totally legitimate wife and that this relationship is real. I like. I see that as her throwing a fit because she understands that what she has just gotten is slipping away from her. Um, she is a person who lives her life entirely transactionally and that hits home in the last shot of the film where spoilers, if you're, if you're really worried about spoilers, but a character gives her the, the, uh, engagement ring that she, uh, was supposed to return to the family, to the Russian family. And when the character gives her that ring, she immediately climbs up. She climbs on top of this other character to start having sex with him. And as she realized what she doing, she like breaks down into tears because she realizes that her entire life has been like one series of transactions after another. She has no, she has no actual personal agency or attachment to people or feelings like her, her whole mental view of the universe, her whole emotional relationship to the world is fucking screwed up. Yeah. It's screwed up because of, it's screwed up because of her life and the, the things that she does for work and for money. And you know, I, there's, there's been a lot of, there's been a lot of arguments over this film, whether or not it's conservative or, you know, like conservatives are mad at the movie because Baker and Mikey Madison said support sex workers in their speech and progressives are mad at this movie because it is, I think actually a deeply reactionary film in certain ways. It is, it is a movie about like. How being a prostitute can like destroy your relationship and understanding your relationship to your world and your understanding of relationships in general, interpersonal relationships. Yeah, I, I like, I find it again. I find it, I find it, I find that really, really interesting. Now, I think, I think Baker does it better in red rocket and the Florida project. Um, I think this movie again is too long. It's like 20 or 30 minutes too long, frankly, uh, I think Mikey Madison gives a great performance. Uh, I think the, the standout performance for me was the bald Russian henchman, um, who was nominated for an Oscar. He didn't win, but the, but he, uh, he, well, he, yeah, he's, he's like, he gives this performance that's almost entirely in the eyes. Like he's mostly just watching things happen and reacting to them. And I think he is very, very good in that role. Um, I don't know. I, I like this movie a lot. I don't love it. It's not my favorite movie of the year, but it definitely is, is up there. And again, it's just really interesting. Uh, it's a, it's a really interesting portrait that is not often painted with this sort of grace.
Mike00:43:13Hmm. Okay. All right. J.V. Wow.
JVL00:43:18I just think it was really brave of the Academy to give best picture to a film that was shot on an iPhone.
Sonny00:43:24This was not shot on an iPhone.
JVL00:43:26I don't believe that.
Sonny00:43:27Okay.
JVL00:43:29Uh, it's fine. It's fine. I can't believe that this is what, this is what best picture has come to. This is a perfectly nice little movie. The end. Like I, I just, you know, at least with Parasite, there was, well, it's foreign, so it's, you know, it must be better exotic, right? Exactly. It's foreign. So it must, it must be really deep, dude. Uh, and in fact, it was deep because it was about, it was about socialism and, uh, capitalism. I, but it's like, I don't know. It's like lost in translation, Brighton beach. Great. Um, it's fine. It's fine. It's fine.
Sonny00:44:08I, this is, I, I don't think that that's wrong. Exactly. Is the thing I, uh, I, I, this was an extremely weak year of movies and nominated movies. Frankly, there, there was nothing this year. There was nothing this year that was like, which would explain the distribution of awards
Mike00:44:25right?
JVL00:44:25I mean, that's, that's either really strong or really months ago, just as like a movie of the week. Then I've been like, Oh yeah, yeah, that's pretty good. Kind of interesting. Yeah. But talking about it's like, this was the best movie of the, the year 2024 seems preposterous to me. I mean, maybe it was, maybe it was the best movie. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I feel like we saw some movies that were better.
Sonny00:44:49It's, it's, it's a weak year for movies. It, I mean, look, it's just a weak, weak year for movies. The brew, I like, you could make an argument that the brutalist is a more important film, but I don't think that movie really works either. Yeah.
JVL00:45:00Flash really liked it. Flash.
Sonny00:45:03The brutalist. What? Anora? No, Anora. Oh, Anora. Yeah. Yeah.
JVL00:45:07Well, did you get it? I did not let flash watch this movie. I wasn't sure.
Mike00:45:12I did text JVL was like, uh, this would be great for the boys. This movie. Um, yeah. Did you love it? I was really interested for the first, um, uh, three minutes, two and a half minutes. Yeah. Exactly.
JVL00:45:25Exactly.
Mike00:45:26Uh, then I got less interested and then I got interested again.
JVL00:45:29Um, no, then he fell asleep for a little bit. Then he woke up and got really interested.
Mike00:45:35Um, I mean, I had a weird experience watching this movie because I could feel the drag on the time. Like it just, there was a point where I was like, when is this movie going to end? Um, and yet I felt satisfied at the end of it. Like I felt like that. Final shot. Uh, he really kind of stuck the landing, so to speak on that. And, um, and with just the way, like everything that had happened, my, my thought throughout the movie was it felt like Annie, uh, the, the title character, uh, was going through this whole experience and, and sort of almost like she was on the outside looking in, like watching this. Thing happened to her in her life, but, and yeah, she got angry and she yells and she drops a bunch of F bombs and she's kicking people and stuff, but like never to, so to see her kind of at the end, have that moment of realization I thought was, um, a satisfying way to end this kind of madcap insane journey she had just been on throughout this movie. And, um, uh, so I appreciated that.
Sonny00:46:49Can I just highlight something you said there? She feels like she's, it felt like she was on the outside looking in. She was, she was on the outside looking in, in this whole time. And that, and again, this is one of, I think the real strengths of the movie is that one of the, one, again, one of the like progressive complaints about the film is that it's not this like girl boss stripper taking on the world and winning movie. Like they want there, there's a, there's a segment of person out there who's like, well, Sean, Sean Baker's not really an ally of sex workers. Look at how he treats a Nora.
JVL00:47:22Look at the mom.
Sonny00:47:24What's that?
JVL00:47:24The girl boss is the mom who's able to come in and actually save her family.
Sonny00:47:28Totally.
JVL00:47:29The girl boss is, there is a girl boss in this movie. She's the kind of villain who isn't really a villain.
Sonny00:47:35It's the mom. And the bitchy stripper. And the bitchy stripper. And the mom is right. The mom is 100% right. And like, that's, and that's, I think what drives people even crazier about this is that like, there's, there's a pretty woman version of this movie where they end up together and it's, you know, maybe, oh, and maybe it's not all peaches and cream, but like, but like in the real world.
JVL00:47:57Neither of these young people would be happy 20 years hence. In the real world. I mean, we wouldn't see it 20 years. One year hence. Right. One year.
Mike00:48:04Right. Exactly. I mean, but, but the thing that I thought, I kept thinking about this movie, which I think is, it speaks to Sonny's interpretation of it and, and, and, and sort of what Sean Baker's purpose is, is I'm watching this whole movie and it's, and it's very obvious to me and to the audience that this is all. Bad, right? Like this is all bad and going to end poorly. And it's not like, you know, you can just see that this kid is a, is a loser nepo baby or, you know, uh, you know, just fail, fail, son, fail son who like, who like, what does he do? Like in everything, right? It's, it's the grabbing the, the, the video game controller, you know, as soon as he sits down, uh, on the couch, like, right. It's like, there's, he's not paying attention to this, to this girl. That he's, that he's paid for. It's like the, there's a very funny, uh, moment where she basically tells him like, you don't have to hump me so hard, like, and so fast, like slow it down. Like he's just, he's just a child, you know, with like a child's understanding of like, I, I want to like, uh, have my needs met and I have an infinite amount of money. It's so anyway, the point is like, you can see that this is all not going to work and there's something. It's heartbreaking, but also like maddening about at that moment in the airport when she meets the parents and she's still sort of futilely trying to say like, I'm a, you know, I'm a part of this family. She like introduces herself to them. And it's, it, and, and I just think it, it, it, it, it's clear that we are meant as you said, Sonny, to both empathize and sympathize with her and also see that she's a foolish, silly little girl.
JVL00:49:53Yeah. I think the general. Gender politics of this are what makes it slightly confusing because if you flip the roles around and the, the figure with the money is the girl and the grasping person trying to like use the marriage to her as a lifeboat, as a guy, then the parents suddenly aren't the bad guys. Right. Is that, is that fair? Right. The parents trying to break them up are suddenly like, maybe it's, you know, maybe they're not the good guys, but it's a lot more ambiguous and they're only like, you know, kind of the bad guys in a way that they're not actually because it's a girl latching onto a guy and not, not vice versa. But if you flip it around, it becomes much clearer.
Mike00:50:38I could see that. I could see that. Um, I also, I, the, the middle section, again, I agree it was too, too long, but I so enjoyed the sort of journey through this very real part of Brooklyn, of the, of Russia, of like Russian Brooklyn. Um, and, and the way in which it's just this community that exists right here in America. And I think, you know, unless you're familiar with it or a part of it, you have no idea it exists. It's, you know, all of these restaurants and, and, and, uh, and so much New York is like that.
JVL00:51:16There's like, you know, you're in the, the Hasidic community or the Jamaican community. I mean, there's these, these places. It's just like the Asian. Yeah.
Mike00:51:26Yeah.
JVL00:51:27Entire worlds unto themselves.
Mike00:51:28Yeah. Yeah. I just thought it, the movie did a great job of making it feel like a, a big place. It's lost in translation.
JVL00:51:35Yeah. It's, uh, you know, doing for New York kind of what lost in translation for Tokyo.
Sonny00:51:40Yeah. Or, uh, what's, what's the Cassavetes movie, uh, uh, Mikey and Nikki. Um, I like it, it just like the, uh, again, it's, it's, there's this, there's this combination, urban odyssey. There's this, uh, slapstick thing about it that I think works really well. Uh, and I don't like that. I like, don't like John Cassavetes movies, frankly. I find them, I find them dull and, and annoying and there, and I could, I also like understand people who find this movie dull and annoying, frankly, I like get it. I, I do. Yeah. I, I understand hitting that middle hour and just being like, get to the fucking point, get to, get to the point. Um, I do. I, I totally. I, I totally get that, but I found, I found it again, maybe this is a function of seeing it in a theater. You know, I saw this in a theater, I saw this, uh, you know, uh, where I couldn't like look at my phone and, you know.
JVL00:52:38Captured audience. Um, Hollywood should make five movies like this a year, every year though. And by like this, I mean of this scale with this level of ambition, like it should not be exceptional. And you know, and it's just weird to me.
Sonny00:52:58I feel like, I feel like between, between Neon and A24, I feel like we get four or five movies like this a year. Uh, I do, I feel like we do, we, and the problem is A24 has no idea how to sell their movies, really. I like they, their, their big problem is they don't, they don't know how to get people to show up for anything that's not a cheap horror movie. Elevated horror? They're very good at that, but what's that?
JVL00:53:24Elevated horror. That's, that's what they're good at, getting people to do.
?00:53:28Yeah.
Mike00:53:29Yeah. One, uh, other aspect of this movie that, um, I think they did a great job of is there are a lot of, um, nude breasts and I just think, um, I think that's worth highlighting and, um. A plus. A plus. We should have, Hollywood should make five. You know what? No, Hollywood should make 10 movies like that. Uh, a year.
Sonny00:53:49That, that's all I have to say. Well, between this and, between, you know, between this and Poor Things. Uh. Uh. We need to check this baby. Emma Stone won, Emma Stone won best actress for Poor Things. Mikey Madison wins for Anora. I, uh, we're trending the right way folks. We're trending the right way.
Mike00:54:05Actresses, take your tops off. That's the lesson that, uh, that everybody's learning. Um, all right, uh, any other thoughts on Anora and.
Sonny00:54:13Thanks for passing the joint up Mike. I appreciate it.
Mike00:54:16Well, I feel like, I feel like I am inevitably letting listeners down who would want to hear like a Vic Mattis treatment of a woman. Of this movie. Um, so a plus plus, yeah, it definitely, uh, succeeds on the quadrant scale. Um, uh, okay. Any other thoughts on an aura before we, uh, before we close out here? All right. Um, well, uh, thank you for listening. Join us over@subbeacon.com, uh, and leave a comment. Tell your friends, tell your family, and we'll talk to you next time. So is, is every like major actor in this movie, except for, except for the, the, the main actress, uh, they're all Russian, right? Like that's like, I've never seen any of them. Okay. But like, there's like no other, I mean, a couple of bit parts here, but there's no other Americans. I was, that was the other thing. I was like, who's in this movie? I was like, I don't know. I don't know anybody in this movie.
Sonny00:55:24Yeah. It's mostly, mostly Russians.
?00:55:26Okay.
Mike00:55:27Is that fine? That's fine.
Sonny00:55:29Can we, are we allowed, are we allowed to have Russians in movies right now? I don't know. It's not.
JVL00:55:36Sure.
?00:55:37We're on their side.
Sonny00:55:38I'm sure it's fine.
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