Two minor quakes hit Los Angeles Sunday night, and I like to think that they were cosmically connected. The second earthquake was a small rattler (3.9) centered in the San Fernando Valley, just north of where the first quake hit inside the Dolby Theatre when “Anora” won best picture. A pleasurable romp about an exotic dancer who runs off with the son of a Russian oligarch, “Anora” is the latest of several movies that its writer-director, Sean Baker, has made on sex industry workers.
It was gratifying to see Baker win for “Anora,” which is the kind of scrappy, low-budget, independent movie that has been making the Oscars more interesting for, well, decades. Each victory for “Anora” also underscored the industry’s existential problems, in part brought about by large companies, including the remaining legacy studios, that have embraced expensive franchises and sequels to the exclusion of art. In the past 10 years or so, some of the best picture winners — the ones that stir up excitement and headlines, and help justify the continued existence of the Academy Awards — have been low-budget features that, like “Moonlight” and “Parasite,” were bankrolled for $20 million or far less.
Source link
