I remember while watching this with friends I was saying some pretty cold and materialistic statements about Anora’s circumstances in hopes of staying “positive.” Although it was all jokes, I feel like my suggestions to view Anora’s situation from a financial perspective, discounting the pain and trauma, reflects the apathy in American culture, where physical and mental exploitation tends to be justified by wealth, dominance, and “happiness”.
In showing this, Anora doesn’t have a super cohesive, cookie-cutter plot with a happy ending. And this is what I think Sean Baker does best.
