The New York Film Festival, easily one of the city’s most prestigious film events, returned to Lincoln Center (as well as various other venues) last weekend for its 62nd edition. Unlike the Tribeca Festival, and other established film festivals like Sundance and Cannes (and especially Fall festivals like Venice and Toronto), the NYFF is not so much a place to premiere movies as it is a place to celebrate them. The festival’s feature film lineup is invitation-only, and contains some of the most anticipated movies from both the mainstream and the art house. In short, it’s a good chunk of awards season in about two and a half weeks. After a strike-addled edition last year, Hollywood’s A-list are heavily present for the festival once again. Yet, a big reason to attend the festival is to get the rare opportunity to see a lot of directors and actors from around the world (47 countries are reportedly represented in the lineup). Some of the year’s best movies are playing here, so I’m gonna try and talk about as many as I can, starting with probably the hottest ticket at this year’s festival.

If you don’t know the name Sean Baker, that may be about to change. He’s gotten a lot of love for his films, usually gritty comedy-dramas that spotlight marginalized communities. I first heard of him for Tangerine, his movie about transgender sex workers of color shot on an iPhone. From there he made The Florida Project, which earned massive acclaim and earned Willem Dafoe an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, as well as Red Rocket in 2021, which also recieved highly positive reviews. Well, I have to make a confession: I’m not the biggest fan of Sean Baker’s work, which makes me a minority in the art film community. Of course, I knew what was coming. Baker’s latest, Anora, is perhaps the most anticipated independent film this year. It won the Palme D’Or at Cannes and is a major awards season frontrunner. Given my attitude towards his last three movies, I knew it was touch and go on whether or not I’d enjoy this, so I’m just going to skip to the verdict right now.

Believe the hype. Anora really is that good.

Anora is a 23-year-old stripper in Brighton Beach who is assigned to a young man named Ivan because she speaks Russian. Ivan starts hiring her as an escort, during which Anora learns he’s the son of a Russian oligarch. It isn’t long before the two fall in love, and not even much longer than that when, partially because of romance and partially because Ivan has to go back to Russia, the two decide to get married so he’ll become an American citizen. Anora thinks she’s found the man of her dreams and struck it rich as a bonus….and then Ivan’s parents find out.

You are not ready for Anora. Baker’s films have always had an often darkly comic audacity to them, from frequent physical fights to things being set on fire, but this is easily his wildest movie to date. The initial feeling that this is an extremely graphic and profane version of a screwball comedy comes to a head in the film’s extended centerpiece sequence, which ranks among the year’s most accomplished, intense, and insane movie moments. To go any further would be criminal, but suffice it to say, it’s a heck of a ride.

It’s easily the funniest movie of Baker’s filmography. It isn’t all funny, though. You really feel for Anora throughout the movie, and there’s some utterly heartwrenching moments in this. It’s a very good script that combines riotous dialogue with a moving story about love, sex, money, and power. Sex work is a common topic in Baker’s films, but of all the movies he’s done, this is probably the most effective I’ve felt he’s been in conveying his themes. Mikey Madison gives an incredible performance as Anora, and at several moments during the movie, the audience burst into applause for her. That said, everyone in the cast does a great job in this. A lot of the humor in this movie comes from the characters playing off of one another (often loudly and with several four-letter words attached).

It all leads to up to an ending that will probably lead to as much discussion and interpretation as it will stay in your mind for quite a while. Combining anarchic, audacious comedy with heartfelt drama, Anora exceeded my expectations. Be sure to catch this one when it hits theaters on October 18th.

It’s time to talk about Satanic Panic, a low-budget horror movie that Russ and Zach both LOVED.

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The Emerald City Video Podcast is a periodic podcast hosted by entertainment journalist Russ Burlingame, with a rotating cast of hosts who used to work at the Emerald City Video store in East Syracuse, New York. The store was once awarded by the Video Software Dealers of America as the best small video store in the U.S. Though it closed in 2009, the store’s legacy still touches the daily lives of a lot of the people who used to work there, and the Syracuse community as a whole still has a lot of fondness for its memory.

The idea behind the podcast, which launched in 2016, was to bring the discourse you would get at a video store — talking with real humans about your movies, rather than trusting in an algorithm — back to…well, if not the world, or even Syracuse, at least to the guys who maybe missed that human connection the most: a bunch of pop culture junky loudmouths who used to run a really cool video store. Over the years, the Emerald City Video banner has flown over a number of themes, including specific episodes about TV series like Riverdale and Psych.

If you like what we’re doing here, you can become a patron of the Emerald City Video Podcast, which comes with fun perks. You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook. We also have Instagram and Vero accounts where we share images, photos, memes, and nonsense. You can support us on Patreon, too, and do things like requesting custom episodes and the like.

Be back for more by noon on the fifth day, and please — always remember to rewind your videocassettes.