F1: The Movie would have been an entertaining movie regardless of who was cast in the leading role.  It’s infinitely better with Brad Pitt in the driver’s seat, though.  As one of the few remaining actors who is also a star, Pitt gives the movie its electricity.  It also helps that he’s comfortable with putting his rugged good looks on display again.  If Pitt had insisted upon obscuring his good looks with glasses, a beard and long, scraggly hair, few would want to see that movie.  (If you got my reference to Pitt’s supporting turn in The Big Short, congratulations!)

According to writer-director Sean Baker’s Anora, working as a stripper is just another job, albeit an unusual one.  First there’s the disorienting atmosphere of the club, with its loud, thumping music and rotating colored lights.  Then there’s the job itself, which involves coaxing payments to pay for a few minutes of fake intimacy with a semi-nude woman.  Although it certainly helps to be a good erotic dancer, as Ani (Mikey Madison) is, it’s even more important to convince patrons that she likes them.  If they don’t believe her initial performance, they won’t pay for her services.  Being a successful stripper is about the art of pretending, convincing others that illusions are real and that dreams can come true–for a price.  It’s a theme that reverberates throughout the movie, reaching beyond its transactional origins to produce consequences both expected and unexpected.

In what may be cinema’s most perplexing title card sequence ever, The Straight Story begins with “Walt Disney Pictures Presents…A Film By David Lynch”.  No, this isn’t a joke on Lynch’s behalf.  This movie really was released by Disney in 1999.  It was also Lynch’s only “G” rated film, which makes the odd juxtaposition easier to comprehend.  If you’re a Lynch devotee like myself, I want to assure you that although the movie is for general audiences, it does includes many of Lynch’s signature artistic touches that his fans will recognize immediately.  In other words, The Straight Story is just as  “Lynchian” as Blue Velvet or Mulholland Drive, two of his most highly regarded films.