We have a new Best Picture winner to celebrate, with Anora taking the top prize (and a few others) at the 97th Academy Awards. If you’re one of the many people who enjoyed the chaos of Sean Baker’s latest film, there are plenty of other movies to watch like Anora, and we can tell you where to stream them.
Anora is a frenetic thrill ride from start to finish, with a little bit of romance, a lot of sex, and even more stress throughout. With this in mind, we’ve assembled a list of ten movies that capture a similar spirit; be it anxiety-ridden adventures, mazy pursuits of missing persons, or oddly erotic relationships that are simply destined to fail.
From cult classics to modern masterpieces, international exports to Hollywood-backed comedies, JustWatch has a bit of everything in our list of 10 movies to watch if you love Anora.
Uncut Gems
If you thought Anora was hectic, the Safdie Brothers’ monster hit Uncut Gems will leave you curled up in a ball craving a nice warm hug; in a good way, of course! The Adam Sandler vehicle is one of those films where you find yourself screaming at the screen, begging characters not to do the foolish things they’re about to do, and it’s so much fun.
Sandler has never been better than in his turn as gambler and jewel salesman, Howard Ratner. But, be warned, he is almost the anti-Anora in many ways. While we’d love to see things fall into place for poor Ani, Howie probably doesn’t deserve anything good to come his way.
Tangerine
While The Florida Project is the more high-profile flick in Sean Baker’s back catalogue, Tangerine is perhaps his most impressive. Shot on an iPhone, with acting novices Mya Taylor and Kitana Kiki Rodriguez in the lead roles, this 2015 indie movie is what filmmaking is all about: getting out there, shooting something, and producing raw magic.
Like most of Baker’s work, Tangerine leans on themes of problematic relationships, the treatment of sex workers, and absolute mayhem on the streets of America. If Anora and The Florida Project are a little too polished and refined for your tastes, Tangerine offers all the grit and grime you’re looking for.
After Hours
Long before Sean Baker and the Safdie Brothers sparked a new wave of disruptive and distressing narratives, the master filmmaker, Martin Scorsese, had the subgenre locked down. His dark, twisted 1985 comedy, After Hours, has without a doubt influenced so many since, including The Weeknd, whose album of the same name contained a multitude of references to Scorsese’s work.
After Hours is a severely underrated Scorsese effort, overshadowed by its glitzier, more star-studded siblings. However, if you ever wanted to see the revered filmmaker embrace his weird side, this is where he really lets loose, as he unleashes Paul Hackett onto the streets of New York City for the worst night of his life.
Mommy
Xavier Dolan captures all the misery and messiness of Anora and ramps it up to 11 with his 2014 coming of age story, Mommy. The French-Canadian flick depicts the troubled life of teenage tearaway, Steve, and his widowed mother, Diane, as they navigate the ups and downs of their tumultuous relationship, with a little help from their benevolent neighbour, Kyla.
It’s a blistering and brutal rollercoaster ride filled with violence and anger, but a painful amount of love, too. If you don’t end up heartbroken and teary-eyed by the end of Mommy, then something has gone horribly wrong.
The Last Black Man in San Francisco
Perhaps you want something a little less stressful now? The Last Black Man in San Francisco has similar themes to Anora of wanting to find a better life, find some purpose, and there’s still a physical journey to be found at the core of the story, too, but it’s a much more calm and poetic adventure.
Jimmie Fails shines in the lead role here, as a man desperate to reclaim his familial home from the gentrification of San Francisco. Along the way, he confronts class struggles, racial profiling, gang violence, and an identity crisis, but we promise it’s not too stressful.
Ema
Pablo Larrain may be better known for crafting sublime period piece biopics about powerful women through history like Jackie and Maria, but when he reverted to his native tongue in 2019 for Ema, he created something monumental.
It’s a film that simply isn’t spoken about enough, and is one of the greatest foreign language films of the last decade. Ema tells the story of a severely broken relationship that erupts with tremendous ferocity through a shared trauma; you essentially get all the chaos of Anora, with ten times as much pain, but at least all that hurt has a gorgeous backdrop.
The Nice Guys
OK, we hear you, too much pain and suffering and stress. Got it. So why not kick back and relax to some pure, unadulterated slapstick fun with Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe in Shane Black’s The Nice Guys.
It’s the move everyone on the internet wants a sequel for, and we’re afraid we will never get that wish fulfilled. But, the 2016 comedy is perfect just the way it is, and might just be the funniest film of the last ten years. The missing persons search at the heart of it all is just as much a wild goose chase as Ani’s search for Ivan, but it’s hilarious watching Holland March and Jackson Healy stumble their way through the case.
Mandy
Chances are, we could hook you in with just one sentence when it comes to Mandy. How about this: Nicolas Cage goes on a wild, neon-soaked, LSD-fuelled rampage in search of his wife’s killers and their demonic cult leader.
If you’re still here and need more persuading, Mandy features a rip-roaring score from the late, great Jóhann Jóhannsson, the violence is gruesome and gnarly, and Nic Cage is at his untethered best in this absolutely savage yet oddly stunning revenge tale.
Boogie Nights
Did someone say graphic nudity and sex scenes? Anora pulls no punches in its depiction of sex workers, and Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights is much the same in its handling of the amateur porn scene. And, just like Anora, this ‘90s classic has the perfect blend of humour and harrowing moments.
This is by far Mark Wahlberg’s best performance of all time, while the likes of Burt Reynolds, Julianne Moore, John C. Reilly, and Heather Graham all shine alongside him. It’s a long and sprawling epic that, at times, feels almost Tarantino-esque in the way the plot weaves and winds into one big messy web.
Burn After Reading
We couldn’t talk about amusing yet disorderly comedy-drama-thrillers without including a movie by the Coen Brothers, and it’s Burn After Reading that perhaps best embraces that genre mash-up. The stakes may be sky high in this story – with CIA secrets on the line – but the sheer silliness of the ensemble cast undercuts all the tension in such a brilliant way, and provides so many laugh-out-loud moments.
Brad Pitt and John Malkovich are simply exceptional here as they let their comedic chops loose, and the haphazard plot they find themselves in is an ideal companion piece to the slightly more serious Anora.
Where to stream the best movies like Anora online
Check out the list below for where to watch all these incredible movies that have a similar vibe to Anora, on streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and more!
