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We record an emergency ep to talk about Sean Baker’s sweep at the Oscars with his new film Anora. We talk about Sean Baker’s sentimental style and his “changemaker” interest in stories of marginalized people. He comes from good New Jersey suburb but the only layer of American society he’s interested in are the lower classes — the delivery workers, trans prostitutes, third rate porn stars, strippers, poor immigrants. We discuss our opinion of the film, the reaction that other Russians had to it, and end up talking about Todd Solondz a lot, who like Sean Baker, grew up in upper-middle-class suburban New Jersey but couldn’t be a more different director.

As a bonus, I tell the story of how I tried to score heroin on the LA corner where a lot of the action in Tangerine, Baker’s breakthrough hit film about transgender prostitutes, takes place…and how I ended up going to a gay brothel in West Hollywood.

Do the Anora Oscar wins signal that Hollywood is ready to reset relations with Russia? Only time will tell.

—Yasha

PS: We discuss Evgenia’s short film Changemaker — watch it here.