Anora & The Brutalist

Looking back on the 2025 Academy Awards ceremony, HCC film professors Marie Westhaver and Mike Giuliano devote this podcast episode to its two biggest winners. "Anora" won five Oscars: Picture, Director for Sean Baker, Actress for Mikey Madison, Original Screenplay for Sean Baker and Editing for Sean Baker. Marie and Mike agree that the central performance is strong, as is the basic story about a Manhattan stripper forming a personal relationship with a wealthy Russian client. However, they agree that the 139-minute running time is excessive, and the film also is excessive in all sorts of other ways. In short, they think "Anora" is overhyped.

"The Brutalist" won three Oscars: Actor for Adrien Brody, Cinematography for Lol Crawley and Music for Daniel Blumberg. Marie and Mike praise Brody's performance as a Holocaust survivor who resumes his architectural practice in America, and they also admire how beautifully crafted this film is in terms of cinematography, music and production design. The big however here, of course, is that the film has a bloated running time of 3 hours, 20 minutes (plus a 15-minute intermission if viewed in a theater). Marie observes that many scenes go on longer than they need to, and Mike quickly agrees lest he go on too long in their fast-paced podcast.