ANORA — CANNES 2024

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SEAN BAKER'S CINEMA OF SATISFACTION

Sean Baker has stepped firmly into the role of America's most sophisticated, articulate, and socially meaningful filmmaker.

Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Richard Linklater, Ken Loach, and Mike Leigh should be falling over themselves, praising Sean Baker for his filmmaking gifts.

Not the least of which is Mr. Baker's seamless ability to slip intimately between American regions (Florida, Texas, New York City) to create thoroughly researched, locality specific, stories that ring like a bell with authenticity and humor.

Sex-work in America is the topic that Sean Baker continues to mine in all of his films.

Mikey Madison takes no prisoners in her fearless performance as Anora. Russian/American "Ani" works at a Brighton Beach strip club where she meets Vanya (Mark Eidelshtein), the over-privileged son to Russian oligarch, Nikolai Zakharov (Aleksey Serebryakov). 

Shit hits the fan when Vanya's filthy rich folks find out that their son and a stripper are a thing.

Darya Ekamasova is hilarious as Galina Zakharov, a woman with way too much money and power. 

The film's remarkable ensemble cast feeds on the material to achieve incredible set-piece action sequences that explode like indoor fireworks.

"Anora," is yet another film (behind "Starlet," "Tangerine," "The Florida Project," and "Red Rocket") that Mr. Baker wrote, cast, directed, and edited, is yet another quantum leap in modernday cinematic storytelling.

This is a movie that gets into your bones.

It is inspiring that Sean Baker is able to write screenplays with such precise novelistic detail about people interacting in overlooked aspects of day-to-day life in America.

Mr. Baker's dialogue is modernday Shakespearean.

Just stunning.

You want Neo-Modern-Realist Cinema, well here it is. Serious adult filmmaking doesn't get any better than this. All NYU film students should be studying Mr. Baker's films.

You can easily tell in its first 15 minutes why "Anora" won the coveted Palme d'Or at Cannes.

"Anora" is a winner, and an instant classic of American Independent Cinema.

Rated R. 140 mins.

MALEVOLENT — SHOCKTOBER!

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Icelandic director Olaf de Fleur Johannesson takes too long in getting around to the point in a slasher film single-handedly carried by Florence Pugh's sturdy performance.

Angela (Florence Pugh) and her brother Jackson (Ben lloyd-Hughes) are an American brother/sister ghost-expelling team who take their game to Scotland where they plan to run one last scam.

Angela, Jackson, and their teammates Elliot (Scott Chambers) and Beth (Georgina Bevan), bite off more than they can chew when they take on Mrs. Green (Clia Imrie) as a client.

Angela ignores a ton of red flags to interact with the ghosts of children found murdered with their mouths sewn shut 15 years ago.

Olaf de Fleur Johannesson ramps up the tension but plotholes let out most of the steam.

"Malevolent" is based on the novel "Hush" by Konstantopoulos, although you'd never guess that this lightweight ghost story/slasher pic was based on novelistic source material.

TV-MA. 89 mins.

HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL — SHOCKTOBER!

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William Castle's 1959 B-Movie horror classic retains its goofy charm with a litany of gimmicky sight gags that, however tame by today's standards, keep their childish appeal.

The popular set-up trope for this tale of murder involves five specifically chosen people to attempt winning $10,000 for each one that can withstand an entire night in Vincent Price's "haunted" house.

Wealthy Frederick Loren (Vincent Price) in unhappily married to Carol Ohmart's Annabelle. The couple hate each other so much that either one could kill the other.

So it goes that Frederick supplies each "party" guest with a loaded gun, presented in cute little coffin cases.

Vincent Price does his all-knowing wink to the audience as he glides through the action with marvelous aplomb.

"House On Haunted Hill" is a kid-friendly horror movie that tickles as much as it surprises.

Of special importance to the film is it's use of the historic Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Ennis House in Los Feliz California.

William Castle ("King of the Gimmicks") revels in the story's silliness. It's all an excuse to get the audience to scream along with the actors.

If you want silly fun for your Halloween popcorn-eating enjoyment, "House on Haunted Hill" is a safe bet.

Not Rated. 75 mins.