In this episode, Kimberly Ann Johnson and filmmaker/producer Jackson Kroopf reflect on their respective experiences watching Best Picture Winner Anora. They discuss their contrasting experiences of seeing the films in theaters, what role sex and violence played in the film, and unpack some of what they were drawn to and troubled by in the film. And while they both found the hedonism in the film uncomfortable, the film's ending landed, particularly in its portrayal of power dynamics, intimate rapport, and the broken fantasies that emerge in pursuit of the American dream. Along the way, they consider to what extent the film’s success hinged on a desensitized audience and what that might say about where we find ourselves culturally when it comes to the female body, our nervous systems, and sexuality. If you’d like to dive deeper into these topics, consider signing up for Kimberly’s upcoming course Activate Your Inner Jaguar: Movement, Meditation & The Female Nervous System.

 

What You’ll Hear

• Why Kimberly walked out the first time she saw it.
• A consideration of how sex and violence functioned in the film.
• What commentary is the film making about the nature of sex work?
• The erotic vs. the pornographic
• What is the moral center of the film?
• What role does comedy play in the film?
• Sadness around desensitization in our culture
• The desire for representations of sexuality that are connected, off-script, non-generic
• Representations of sexuality on a woman’s own terms
• The fantasy of the American Dream falling apart
• Old world vs. new world when it comes to 1st and 2nd generation immigrants
• Is there any worth in bearing witness to extreme hedonism
• Can cinema re-sensitize us?
• Does violence in films reflect what’s in the collective or determine what’s in the collective?
• What happens when couples more openly discuss their sexual preferences?
• Can repair happen if a negative sexual experience takes place with a partner?
• Longing for seeing representations of moral men outside of "hero" roles

Links

Sign up for the course Activate Your Inner Jaguar: Movement, Meditation & The Female Nervous System here.