demented_peruvian

"Final Destination: Bloodlines" has a clever, suspenseful, well done intro, and sets up a gold story. The family angle is new, and it gives another direction to play out the story. Then like the original film, ir goes for a fun, darkly comedic middle as we a figure out what is going on. Tony Todd is given a good farewell.

But then the last third is a mess. The deaths and events are too over the top, illogical, impossible, improbable, CGI-heavy, and stop.following the franchise rules. The peotagonist goes from being able to foresee what is coming to being useless. The end feels like a videogame.

There is nothing new about 'Nicole Kidman acting strange, cold and distant with many internal demons' - this has been her thing for the past 30 years. "Babygirl" is the latest, and the scene where she yells at her husband was actually refreshing.

"Babygitl" at times feels like it wants to be a sequel to "Eyes Wide Shut" (Kidman, sexual fantasies, NYC at Christmas), at others is too obviously a corporate-power-gender-reversed "50 Shades of Gray" for audiences who miss the 2015 dating scene, a bit of "Unfaithful:, and the rest is a fenale.fantasy from the vast catalogue of Lifetime and several Latin American films and shows. This latest "young man becomes attracted and obsessed with older woman" troupe is at least more credible than the usual, as Kidman, making a point of showing flaws and all, is still reasonably attractive, and the young man is quite average - the exact opposite of the usuridiculously buff yet charismatic wait-on-you but also needs some saving young man of all of these movies and TV shows.

What kept me.engaged was the editing, with sound flowing prior to.the start of the next scene, and the various interestimg shots and use of light/dark that were pulled off in limited spaces. The imagery contrasting automation with the 'work' of the spin-focused corporate world and the social.disconnect was interesting. All.in all, it was a fresh vibe on a cliche script about powerful women wanting to be dominated.

It's subject matter is groundbreaking if you haven't watched much of anything in the past 25 years.

"Anora" is why AI will take over arthouse cinema.

How to win Palm D'Or, the Oscars, and several.other prestigious awards: 1. Grab a cliche plot.

2. Take the story to cliche places.

3. Use acting and dialogue out of an adult online film, social media celebrities, a GTA clone video game, the nth Scorcese rip off, the worst Tyler Perry show, the most generic rap album, those annoying people behind you in a line, like, totally, I know, right?

4. Have several characters comment on how 'hot' is the very average looking (nothing wrong with that) lead actress.

5. Repeat the very little, extremely limited monosyllabic generic dialogue 5,000 times, with people yelling over each other for intensity, slipping in and out of stereotypical accents.

6. For realism, show extended unrealistic violence. And of course, for comedic effect someone will say "I'm too old for this-", I'm sorry, no, use "they broke my nose! I can't believe they broke my nose!" 7. If you actually have something interesting and elaborate to show, but you cannot afford the place or extras, no worries; just take a few quick 0.5-second shots and edit them quickly together. You can even use them in the posters promoting the movie. It doesn't matter that your editing rythm will be terribly inconsistent.

8. For artistic credibility, do the occasionallly interesting wide angle shot, perfectly Instagrammable, even if ultimately all of them are meaningless. You can also half-attempt the extended moving-in-crowd shot.

9. Characters? Backstory? Explanations on how people travel quickly and carefree from Point A to Point B, e.g. 37 hours of driving looking like 37 minutes? Or how you can get a quickie legally valid marriage without documents on hand? Who needs them? Despite this and # 2, 4, 6, and 8, persuade people that this is cinema verité.

10. Cash in on your name recognition as a cool indie director.

11. If anyone questions the cliche nature of the film, say your source of inspiration is an Italian classic.

12. The studio will spend $15+ million 'promoting' the film. They will convince voters that it is 'light, fun, breezy and different' while reviewers will comment on the 'progressive difficulty', 'maturity', 'bravery', 'social metaphor', "social realism", and the FOMO-baiting 'not for everyone'.

I understand and respect that Sean Baker's films are about de-glorifying the sex worker industries, contrasting the dreamy images with harsh reality, while creating empathy for unlikeable rough characters, usually via the more level-headed characters that seem to try to care of them, or at least tolerate them. And he l does it for as little.money as possible while crafting some interesting imagery. Yes, "Anora" probably went with challenging the dreams of strippers/part-time prostitutes, and comparing them to how it could play out in reality. Very little of this cartoon-meets-Xvideos-meets-ghetto-soap-opera felt like reality, though. It is cinema mensonge.

If I were a character in "Anora", I would then repeat ad nauseum what I wrote above, but yelling. "I bleep understand Sean bleep Baker's films you (uncreative bleep). You broke my nose!"