Anora Review

A Pretty Woman Under The Influence

Sean Baker's Anora will sweep you off your feet. It reminds you of why we go to the movies: to be dazzled and feel alive. Anora's energy is contagious and palpable. It's a story that's one part sexy but also profane. You are completely transported into this hilarious screwball comedy featuring real cathartic heartbreak and Buster Keaton's level of physical comedy. It's as if Larry David and Elaine May came together to write an episode of Seinfeld featuring Mikey and Nickey. This whimsical film only works because of Mikey Madison's fierce and vulnerable performance. A star-making role that she completely dominates. Anora is something extraordinary, and Sean Baker has refined his craft to tap right into the pulse of the here and now. It's a modern classic in the making.

Anora follows Ani, aka Anora (Mikey Madison), who is an exotic dancer/sex worker who works at a strip club in New York City and is introduced to Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn), who is the son of a dangerous and wealthy Russian Oligarch. Ivan is deeply fascinated with Ani for her looks and is turned on by her ability to speak Russian, so he hires her as his escort. His wealth blows away Ani, and even though he's very immature, she likes him for his humor. Their relationship culminates when Ivan pays Ani to be his girlfriend for a week, and they decide to party it up in Las Vegas. He realizes he must return home to Russia because his Green Card is up, but he suggests they marry. Ani naively agrees to marry this man, and they have a shotgun wedding in Vegas. The film then kicks off when Ivan's parents find out and demand that his godfather and caretaker in America, Toros (Karren Karagulian), fix this situation. Toros sends his two goons, Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan) and Igor (Yura Borisov), to confirm and confront the couple about the marriage and work to get it annulled. All hell breaks loose at Ivan's, and he makes a run for it while Ani is stuck and essentially "semi-kidnapped" by the goons. Toros makes his way to the house, and now the gang with Ani must hunt down Ivan through his friends and check every club for them to get the marriage annulled, or Ani can fight to keep their love alive.

Mikey Madison immediately pops off the screen with attitude and dignity. She is asked to hold her own as all these men try to dominate her life, and she does so with flying colors. How she's able to hilariously spew every curse word one minute in the face of scary henchmen and feel her whole world fall apart in her face, the next is just incredible. The amount of time and effort she must have spent understanding and studying the world of sex work is present on the screen and not just the nudity. I feel like critics will often come out and call a performance brave and bold, but they're just saying the actor or actress was just naked the whole time, and it can be so dismissive of the challenging work put in by a magnificent performance. Mark Eydelshteyn plays the Nepo baby billionaire's son better than I imagined. He's just all about a good time, ripping his vape every second and playing video games (poorly, I might add, as this actor has never held a videogame controller in his life. They needed an IGN advisor on set or something). His performance becomes so much darker as he treats everything as just things, and once the goofy immaturity is wiped away, there is something so cruel about Ivan.

The clear sleeper MVP of the film is Yura Borisov as Igor. He comes in with such a physical presence and empathy that he takes the movie up a complete notch for me. I was blown away by how impactful and how much I cared for this character. He cared for Ani's well-being. Borisov goes punch for punch as one of the funniest characters put to screen with his dry humor, but with so much consideration for Ani, you can see it all in those eyes. I did love Toros and Garnick's back and forth as they both lost their minds trying to find Ivan Toros's baptism scene. It may be the funniest scene this decade, but I felt kind of like they canceled each other as repetitive characters at times.

Sean Baker has stepped up his game regarding his filmmaking ability. How he's able to have several characters all yelling over each other with subtitles running and have them all blocked perfectly, where it never feels overwhelming, is so impressive. He's able to smoothly move the camera around during chaotic fight scenes where I never feel like I don't know where anything is and edit it like I'm watching a classic Three Stooges scene with witty slapstick humor. The film is handsomely shot, and the vibrant neons pop off so much. I love all the handheld moments where I feel intimately in the room with these characters, and the way he pushes in on us as an audience with the camera is fantastic. All these combine with a sharp, witty script that feels like a hyper version of real life like a movie should. I was utterly entranced in the world of Anora and F-bombs.

The themes of sex, love, and class and how the transactions of the three interplayed worked for me. We get an authentic look into a world where sometimes those who want to find love may never know if what they are doing is truly for that or their bodies, and it can be downright heartbreaking. To know you've been just used as a plaything and dehumanized entirely, what can that do to you or how you think about the world? The ending of the film takes a deep look into that in a very personal moment, and I think it's an unbelievable ending, but I do feel that I wish there were more time given to the emotional state of Ani. If I have any other gripe with the film, I think there is a bit of a lull in the middle when they're running around trying to find Ivan, but I loved all the zany characters a ton, so I didn't mind hanging with them a bit more.

Anora is wicked fun and exciting. Mikey Madison gives a comet-like performance backed by a hilarious supporting cast. The film flies wonderfully and will seduce and break you in the best ways—Sean Baker’s best-to-date and one of the best of the year, if not the decade.

THIS IS WHY WE GO TO THE MOVIES BABY!!!

Final Score: 9/10

(I would highly recommend checking in with the thoughts of those in this line of work and the depiction of life. Listening to those who deal with this industry and who face real horrors is essential.)

Written by Kevin J. Pettit