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Tag: Pretty Woman

  • Shake, Shake, Shake (It), Anora, Or: Pretty Woman This Is Not (Unless One Is Referring to the $3,000 Version Of It)

    Shake, Shake, Shake (It), Anora, Or: Pretty Woman This Is Not (Unless One Is Referring to the $3,000 Version Of It)

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    By now, it’s no secret that Sean Baker is known for his keen ability to give insight into the world of a certain kind of working-class ilk (even if this insight is occasionally deemed by some as “exploitative” or “poverty porn” [as was the case with The Florida Project]). Not just sex workers (as he also did in 2015’s Tangerine), but undocumented immigrants (2004’s Take Out) and even “aged out” male porn stars (2021’s Red Rocket). With Anora, Baker’s pièce de résistance (based on the film winning the Palme d’Or at Cannes—the first American move to do so since 2011’s The Tree of Life), he returns to his favorite kind of working-class hero yet again: the sex worker.

    Like Halley (Bria Vinaite) in The Florida Project, Anora “Ani” Mikheeva (Mikey Madison, in her undeniable breakout role) is a stripper. Unlike Halley, she isn’t averse to having sex with select clients outside of the club (called Headquarters). In this instance, Ivan a.k.a. Vanya Zakharov (Mark Eydelshteyn): the twenty-one-year-old son of a Russian oligarch…though Anora won’t unearth that important detail until a bit later. And even when she does find out, it still seems unbelievable seeing as how this man-boy comes across as being so guileless, so utterly “unsmooth.” But also funny, as far as Anora can tell. And you know what they say: being able to make a woman laugh can go a long way as a man (clearly).

    So when he invites her over to his mansion in the Mill Basin part of Brooklyn (the mansion in question was, at one point, actually inhabited by a Russian oligarch), she accepts this offer—this “business transaction.” This encounter leads to another and before Anora knows it, Vanya is presenting her with a “proposition.” Not at all dissimilar to the one Edward Lewis (Richard Gere) did to Vivian Ward (Julia Roberts) in Pretty Woman (though some viewers’ gut reaction might be to draw a slight comparison to 2019’s Hustlers due to the stripper instead of “prostitute” element).

    A movie, incidentally, that was originally titled $3,000 (or just 3000)—the amount Edward agrees to give Vivian for her to spend the week with him. Anora, instead, gets $15,000 (inflation and all that). And, in a moment of dialogue that is almost certainly an homage to Pretty Woman in Anora, Vanya starts his offer at ten thousand, to which Anora replies, “Fifteen.” He agrees, with Anora admitting she would have stayed for ten, and Vanya saying he would have gone up to thirty thousand. It mimics Vivian telling Edward, “I would’ve stayed for two thousand” and him smirking, “I would’ve paid four.”  

    As soon as the money matter is settled, Anora packs her bags to stay with Vanya and, just as Vivian before her, she’s essentially there to be at his beck and call, with plenty of “lovin’” to provide in between (so much “lovin’,” in fact, that Baker and his wife/frequent producer, Samantha Quan, effectively served as the “intimacy coordinators” of the movie by demonstrating what sex positions that Madison and Eydelshteyn should be in for their various fuck scenes). Vanya’s overt inability to please a woman (which isn’t always a mark of inexperience so much as a common defect in most men) doesn’t even seem to bother Anora. After all, she’s getting paid. And besides, she has a good time with him. A “good time” that is, of course, furnished in large part by all the available money that Vanya has at his disposal to spend. Whether this means throwing a lavish, drug-addled New Year’s Eve party at his mansion or jet-setting off to Vegas on a whim because one of his friends tells him that’s where they had the best ketamine, money is the anthem of “no desire left out of reach.”

    And what Vanya seems to desire (for more than just a week) is Anora, still insisting her name is Ani (pronounced like Annie not Ah-nee). Even if playing up her “exotic” background has done nothing but work in her favor, particularly since part of the reason Vanya was “referred” to her at Headquarters is because she’s the only one among the dancers who can speak a bit of Russian thanks to her Brighton Beach upbringing (also attributing her knowledge to a Russian grandmother that never learned to speak English).

    And so, in this moment, when Vanya first becomes captivated by Anora, one might say it fits the Pretty Woman tagline of: “She walked off the street, into his life and stole his heart.” Only it doesn’t take long to understand the most fundamental difference of all between Pretty Woman’s narrative and Anora’s: one deals with a man pursuing a woman who happens to be a sex worker, and the other deals with a boy pursuing a woman who happens to be a sex worker. And that distinction makes all the difference in the world, as Anora must soon find out the hard way. But before her rude awakening, it truly does feel as though she’s “hit the jackpot,” as one of her friends and fellow strippers, Lulu (Luna Sofia Miranda)—think of her as the Kit De Luca (Laura San Giacomo) of the movie—tells her in the midst of her walking out of the club for good.

    Lulu, however, is actually genuinely happy for Anora. Whereas Diamond (Lindsey Normington), another girl who works at the club and serves as a regular adversarial force in Anora’s life, seethes about the news, jadedly predicting that the marriage won’t last more than two weeks. Unfortunately, Diamond’s “prophecy” will turn out to be accurate, as Anora’s “bliss” (mainly lolling around while Vanya does drugs and/or plays video games) is violently interrupted by the appearance of two goons under the instruction of Toros (Karren Karagulian), Vanya’s godfather and the proverbial whipping boy of his parents when something goes wrong.

    As for the goons, Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan) and Igor (Yura Borisov), they’re quick to realize that Anora is their only leverage once Vanya bitches out and flees the scene, leaving his so-called beloved to fend for herself. It is in this moment that Anora should be aware that she’s been had, that everything Vanya said was total bullshit, making him far worse than what the pearl-clutchers would call a prostitute because he feigns his emotional intimacy with so much more skill. But no, Anora is convinced that Vanya will come through for her, that the reason he ran off is to figure out a solution so that they can stay together, even as his parents try to rip them apart from their remote position in Russia.

    Naturally, they’re not staying “remote” for long, telling Toros that they’ll be in town the next day to sort out this “nonsense” (to use a word now automatically associated with Sabrina Carpenter). All the while, Anora remains shockingly (and naively) steadfast in her belief that the marriage isn’t going to end, that Vanya and she will find a way to “work it out,” to make his parents accept the “reality” of their nuptials—ostensibly forgetting that rich people can create whatever reality they want, whenever it suits their purpose.

    Thus, the Pretty Woman comparisons stop at the abovementioned key plot point of Vanya enlisting Anora as his escort for the week. Unless, of course, one chooses to go with the original version of Pretty Woman, 3000, which includes an ending that finds Edward tossing Vivian out on her ass and throwing the money at her once she’s back on the street to quiet her down, so to speak. Otherwise, Anora is less Pretty Woman and much more Nights of Cabiria vis-à-vis the cad-ish behavior of the man who is supposed to “rescue” her from her former existence.

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    Genna Rivieccio

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  • Shah Rukh Khan reacts to a crossover edit of Pretty Woman and Chaleya

    Shah Rukh Khan reacts to a crossover edit of Pretty Woman and Chaleya

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    Shah Rukh Khan has been winning the audience’s hearts with his recent release Jawan. Directed by Atlee, the film also stars Nayanthara and Vijay Sethupathi and has broken all records at the box office. 

    Since the announcement of the film, Shah Rukh Khan has been quite active on X with his AskSRK session. On Sunday, an SRK fan edited a clip of Aman from Kal Ho Naa Ho’s Pretty Woman and changed the background to the tunes of Jawan’s Chaleya song. This unexpected crossover became a sensation. 




    When the edit reached SRK, he had the sweetest reply, “You are right…. This edit does seem to work ‘pretty’ seamlessly. Thank u my man, this was fun to watch. Love u.”

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    Filmfare

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  • Popular Movies That Were Supposed To Be Way Darker

    Popular Movies That Were Supposed To Be Way Darker

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    While there are plenty of aspects that go into making a good movie, the overall “tone” is certainly one of the most important. This goes beyond the overall genre of a film — for example, a romance movie can be playful or serious, while a comedy can be silly or rife with cynicism. Therefore, any type of film can be classified as “dark” — and the term can mean several different things.

    A dark horror movie may be particularly violent, a dark comedy may be tinged with morbidity, and a dark drama may be bleak and tragic. No matter how you slice it, a dark movie can basically be chalked up as the opposite of a “feel-good” movie. But did you know that some of your favorite movies — including campy cult classics and lighthearted comedies — were once envisioned as being much darker?

    READ MORE: The Most Unintentionally Hilarious Horror Films of All Time

    Oftentimes, a production team will start out with one concept for a movie, only to see that concept morph as the script is rewritten, roles are cast, and filming commences. Changes continue throughout the production process all the way down to the final edit, which can be heavily influenced by test audiences and studio executives. It’s not uncommon for a finished product to look totally different than its initial script. In the cases of these movies, that meant cutting back on violence, gore, and other dark themes to appeal to a wider audience demographic.

    If their success is any indicator, it’s safe to say that these popular movies ended up becoming exactly what they needed to be — even though some of these original visions sound pretty cool. Here are ten films that were supposed to be way darker, but were toned down before being released in theaters.

    Popular Movies That Were Supposed To Be Way Darker

    Things might have turned out differently for these hit films if they’d stuck with their original (darker) scripts.

    Actors Who Were Traumatized By Their Roles

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    Claire Epting

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  • Magic Mike’s Last Dance Takes A Pretty Woman Route (With More Sexist Implications)

    Magic Mike’s Last Dance Takes A Pretty Woman Route (With More Sexist Implications)

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    Just when you thought you had seen the last of “Michael Jeffrey Lane” (Channing Tatum), he comes along and decides to surprise you. As perhaps only a male stripper can. Even if a “retired” one. Indeed, Mike is rather easily lured out of his retirement with a few mere words from a “wild card” of a socialite named Maxandra Mendoza (Salma Hayek Pinault—since we must add that last part to her name now). A woman Mike encounters at a party where he’s tending bar. Just another in a series of gigs that he’s been forced to take on in the wake of his furniture company closing. For, per our as-of-yet unknown narrator, a global pandemic isn’t very conducive to one’s business. And, considering the last time we saw Magic Mike was in the pre-apocalypse era (2015), things are looking even bleaker for the “ex” stripper than they did in Magic Mike XXL (which features, among other presently fallen stars, Amber Heard and Stephen “tWitch” Boss).

    So it is that our narrator also informs us, “Like many forty-year-old millennial white males, Mike Lane found himself alone and adrift in an ocean of failed relationships and unrealized dreams.” Because, no, fulfilling drink orders was not his “dream.” Though, in some ways, bartending isn’t unlike stripping. You’re still performing a series of acrobatic maneuvers ultimately aimed at pleasing people. As Mike seems to almost immediately please Maxandra by disarming her during their first interaction via the question, “You gettin’ what you want?” When she does a double take at this, he clarifies, “With the fundraiser. It looks like it’s going all right.” Something in her shifts, as though a light has gone on—especially after Mike mentions, “People like to look at what they can’t have.” Hearing from a party guest that Mike used to be a stripper (/maybe more), Maxandra is emboldened to invite him into her house after the party is over.

    When Mike insists he doesn’t do “that” anymore, and that the price to make him would be sixty thousand dollars, Maxandra offers six thousand. And so begins “the dance.” Lucky Daye’s “Careful” plays over the speakers of her living room as Mike delivers a seduction that borders the fine line between sexy and comedic (as most seductions are fundamentally absurd). It’s already at this early juncture that we can see the parallels that align Pretty Woman with this particular installment of the Magic Mike series. For in no other Magic Mike movie was there any older, well-to-do “patron” offering cash in exchange for no sex. At first anyway. For on that initial night when Vivian Ward (Julia Roberts) is picked up by Edward Lewis (Richard Gere) and taken to the Regent Beverly Wilshire, she’s all about securing the bag. Until she realizes that, for Edward, the encounter isn’t really about sex—though, again, not until later. When Vivian tells him in the car on the way, “I never joke about money,” Edward replies, “Neither do I.” They seem like a perfect fit right out the gate. The same goes for Mike and Maxandra, the latter, in her Edward role, challenging Mike to make more of himself. To actually pursue his true passion. This is broached when she inquires, “Do you like bartending?” Mike shrugs, “Sure, uh, it’s not really what I do, but yeah. Why not?”

    Vivian essentially feels the same way about prostitution, but clearly makes the most of it (this includes calling herself a “safety girl” when she shows Edward an array of condoms from the selection contained within her thigh-high boot). Edward, however, can already see that she’s so much more—finding out just that when he catches her with dental floss in her hand, as opposed to the illicit drug he assumes it must be (stereotyping sex workers as usual, but, hey, it was the 90s). Increasingly charmed with Viv throughout the night, the two finally “seal the deal” to the background of an I Love Lucy episode, of all things. The following day, just as Maxandra will ask of Mike, Edward proposes they spend a much larger block of time together (one week to Mike and Maxandra’s one month). As Edward puts it, “I will pay you to be at my beck and call.”

    As will Maxandra for Mike, promising him the original sixty thousand dollars he suggested if he accompanies her to London. Cajoled into going, despite having no idea what the “job” he’s being offered actually is, Mike finds out that Maxandra believes in his talent and potential so much that she’s enlisted him to be the new director/choreographer of a play she wants to revamp called Isabel Ascendant—which means they’re keeping the first scene from said play and turning it into, essentially, a Chippendales act.

    The “May-December” romance that continues to blossom throughout this period of collaboration is astutely observed by Maxandra’s daughter, Zadie (Jemelia George)—she being the one who has been intermittently inserting her narrations this whole time. While Salma Hayek Pinault is fifty-six, Julia Roberts—ergo, Vivian Ward—was twenty-three in 1990, when Pretty Woman came out. A vast difference compared to Mike’s forty (Tatum himself is actually forty-two). Roughly the age Richard Gere was in 1990. The gap between Gere and Roberts was obviously larger in part because it was (and is) so commonplace for men to pursue younger women without half as much judgment as older women opting for younger men. This is made patent when Maxandra’s husband, Roger Rattigan (Alan Cox), who seems to be some faint foil for Hayek’s own rich husband in real life, cuts her down by saying, “I know when you’re being used. Don’t you see that? Darling, I know we’re all getting old, but I didn’t know you were so desperate.” No one would ever dare say such a thing to Edward about his younger woman choice—instead only making mention that she’s a hooker as a point of contention.

    The power and age dynamics at play in both Pretty Woman and Magic Mike’s Last Dance are what make the tension (primarily sexual) in both feel so palpable at any given moment. And while both Edward and Maxandra could have “chosen” any non-“for pay” companion, each thought they were going to spare themselves from emotional attachment if it was under the guise of a “business proposition” instead.

    In the famous final scene of Pretty Woman, Edward asks Vivian, “So what happened after he climbed the tower and rescued her?” Vivian replies, “She rescues him right back.” The same goes for Mike and Maxandra, even if the latter does have to abandon “her” fortune in order to be with Mike. Because, naturally, the fortune belonged to her husband, who, quelle surprise, has an utterly strangling series of prenup clauses that makes it impossible to live freely without just abandoning the cash altogether. But at least Maxandra can acknowledge the unfairness of being in an Edward role without actually being an Edward. This by telling her driver/butler, Victor (Ayub Khan Din)—the requisite Barney (Héctor Elizondo) of the movie—“[Mike] believes in me, and I have to go tell him that our show about empowering women is dead because I’m so fucking powerless.” Nonetheless, Mike will not let her give up all they worked toward during their last few weeks together. Which is why Maxandra’s power, in the end, is still delivered by the presence/swooping in of a man. Making her little better, “station in life-wise” than Vivian.

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    Genna Rivieccio

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