At two o'clock in the afternoon on a normal Friday, masked men entered the library. Armed and spread out in a search pattern, they stalked over to the magazine area, into the fiction and nonfiction stacks, and around the children's section. Story time had just gotten started and moms bouncing toddlers to the tune of "Wheels on the Bus" tried to smile to not scare the children.
Anora sets out to shine the light of truth on a classic story of a prostitute who marries a rich guy. Pretty Woman be damned as the heroine of our story is a disconnected vaping twenty-something not looking for anything but to get paid and do some good drugs. Our rich lothario spends most of his time on screen playing video games and being intoxicated. At the end of the movie you will be seduced by the grime of it all.
We all get by with a little help from our friends. Even if you don't know it, somebody out there has made it easier for you to get through you day. Somebody stocked the shelves, paved the roads, kept the power on. Still, cracks are made to be fallen through.
Halley and her daughter Mooney are long-term residents of the Magic Kingdom, a run down hotel managed by Bobby. This is the part of Florida that shows up in the paper, where a woman who can't get work as a stripper sells perfume in parking lots and her body while her daughter plays in the bathtub. Still, there is light, in the form of childhood innocence often embodied in the big shining castle of Disney.
Working with the public in a library, we often see the surface. We see the loud abrasive push back. We see the bravado. We see the need for aid that comes in the form of demands. We see waste and juvenile behavior and the stark reality that some folks just need to get by. The sadness and nobility in the struggle, especially for those with a little bit of kindness trying to keep things afloat for the destructive.
This movie's a gut punch as well as a quiet look at a world many see and live everyday. The movie succeeds in its utter humanity. That kid is amazing.